I Hate Everything About You
by SpacePirate Khan
Summary: Ch5. Forte has vanished into the furthest reaches of the net, and his apprentice is determined to find him. Forte is growing ever stronger, however... this could be the silence before the storm. [ForteOC]
1. So It Begins

Disclaimer:  
I do not own Megaman Battle Network, or any  
characters associated with it. Blah blah blah.  
You get the picture.  
  
  
Apology Note:  
Sorry I haven't posted in ages. Wow, I say  
that alot eh? Inspiration comes and goes  
like.. um... a bad case of gas.. or something.  
Anyway, a lot has happened to hinder me along  
with the accursed constant writer's block that  
accompanies school; I haven't had enough time to  
write in ages, I've been on restriction from the  
internet (don't ask), my laptop with all my fics  
on it (first one) got wiped out, my new laptop got  
hit with four viruses which REALLY slowed me down,  
and it's hard even when I get the time because my  
baby sis is constantly screaming at me. I won't  
grovel untill I get no reviews though =).. then again..  
grovels Keep sending reviews I beg you!  
  
  
Author's Note:  
This is a between-the-lines fic told in  
Bass' point of view. I might write one in  
Serenade's p.o.v. later, but for now, Bass is  
my favorite character so... you know. On with  
the show. Btw, even though I've been calling him  
Bass, let's get a few things straight before we  
begin; his name is Forte. Bass.. that's a fish  
for crying out loud..  
  
As for Serenade, she was mistaken for a male in  
the game because of translation mistake. So that'll  
clear up any confusion that may have appeared later.  
If that confuses you, lemme put it simple.  
SERENADE is a GIRL. A GIRL I SAY. WHY ELSE WOULD  
SHE BE WEARING PINK FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!? So I'd better  
not have any imbeciles confusing this for yaio.  
  
And that reminds me; The Megaman category makes me sick.  
Atleast it used to, I haven't looked in a long time.  
All I can say is you people better be glad I ain't in  
charge of for now, though, this tale will  
help bring up the non-disturbed number of fics in the  
category. (if you don't know what I mean, just read  
the summaries of the majority of Megaman X fics...)  
By the way, WARNING BEFORE WE START:  
Long Chapter Ahead.  
Those with odd mental conditions that cause complete  
insanity when exposed to an overdose of words,  
also known as a short attention span, are  
advised to take this bit by bit.  
  
  
  
[Chapter One: So It Begins..]  
  
  
  
  
"Where am I..?"  
  
  
  
A young Navi clad in black&yellow armor slowly  
stood up, shaking his sore head. He felt like  
he'd fallen from miles above, and had bruises  
to back it up. The platorms he stood on had spikes  
jutting out from them, and below him, above him, even  
as far as the eye could see, was an endless void of  
what a television looks like when cable's out, but darker.  
Rough-looking Purple navis strolled by now and then,  
with the occasional normal commercial Navi (which usually got mugged  
or deleted by the purple ones as soon as they were seen).  
  
He recognized this forbidden area immediately.  
"The Undernet..."  
  
As he stared around at the familiar surroundings,  
everything became clear once more. Or atleast as  
clear as his own reasoning could make it. His owner  
had gotten into serious trouble and likely abandoned  
him in hopes of lessening his own crisis.  
  
"Stupid human.." the young navi muttered, walking slowly  
down the path. Part of him, in a way, wept at the loss of  
his operator. But the other part of him hated the man  
with a passion. He knew the real reason why he had been  
abandoned, but he denied it every time he thought about it.  
  
  
As he turned down a path towards Undersquare, a purple  
navi jumped in front of him, holding six little balls  
between his fingers. "Hey punk, hand over yer zenny!" the  
Undernavi commanded. "Or I'll delete yeh faster than  
yeh can cry for help!"  
  
The black-clad navi stared cruelly at the mugger, and  
crossed his arms. "You pitiful fool.. I will forgive  
your trespass if you will leave me be now. Don't waste  
any more of my time."  
  
"Alright, you asked for it!" the Undernavi shouted angrily,  
tossing all six little orbs at the black armoured navi's feet.  
Each one burst open into a different Virus, and all six of  
the viruses ambushed him.  
  
"Have it your way.." said the armoured navi with a sigh.  
A fireball flew at his head and exploded soon afterwards,  
creating a giant cloud of black smoke around him.  
  
"Hah! That'll teach yeh some respect!" the Undernavi cackled,  
but then he heard a low electrical crackle from the black  
mist and stared into it. As the smoke faded, a brightly glowing  
shield could be seen with the armoured Navi in the middle.  
"What the.."  
  
  
The armoured navi leapt into the air, his arm glowing, and came down,  
smashing his fist into the viruses; three of them shattered  
into bits of junk data, the platform under them busting into  
a decent-sized gap that a fourth virus fell down, plunging into  
the endless abyss. The remaining viruses, a couple of wolf-like  
creatures named Spikeys, dashed towards the armoured one,  
only to be thrown back by his aura to plunge into the abyss with  
their other allies.  
  
"Ah--Ahhh! Wh-who are you!?" the Undernavi said. "St-stay  
away from me man!! You're a freak!"  
  
"My name is Forte." the dark Navi said, slowly hovering  
towards the undernavi. "And you've had the misfortune of  
ambushing me on a bad day.."  
  
  
Anguished screams could be heard echoing throughout the  
entire Undernet, followed by a booming explosion and a  
flash of light. Then Forte went on his way towards  
Undersquare as if nothing had happened, leaving an area  
full of cracked and broken walkways.  
  
  
  
  
  
Forte calmly strode into the Undersquare, not even giving a  
passing glance to any navis around him as they ran their  
petty little errands. His hatred for humans started to  
grow beyond that of just his ex-owner as he watched them,  
slaves to their human operators, and he began to wonder how  
he ever allowed himself to be commanded in such a way.  
  
His thoughts were interrupted by an undernavi at the top  
of Undersquare's staircase. "Hey, you!" shouted the purple  
Navi. "You're that Forte punk, aren't you!?"  
  
"What do you want?" Forte asked, glaring at the purple navi.  
"I want your rank!"  
"My.. rank...?"  
  
  
He reached into his cloak and pulled out a card with a  
number three on it. "This little thing? What would you  
do with such an item?"  
  
"Same 'ding everyone else here does! What are you, stupid?  
Now hand it ova' or I'll delete yeh!"  
  
"Look, I don't have time to bother with you pests.." Forte  
sighed. "Besides, what makes you think you could delete  
me, much less defeat S?"  
  
"S has no operator, so he's probably pathetic!" the Navi  
said with a laugh. Forte's eyes lost their bored, annoyed  
look, and widened to normal size once more. Then a look  
of anger covered his face. "So you think Navis need  
a HUMAN to do anything worthwhile!? You think a pitiful  
HUMAN gives us our power!?"  
  
"Pch, not all of it, but face it, we Navi's couldn't  
survive without'em, I don't know how this S person can--"  
  
  
A purple aura burst around Forte as he glared  
at the Undernavi, his fists flaming with yellow energy.  
The other Navi yelped and quicky started hurling  
Virus Bombs at Forte; each one bounced off of his  
shield and burst open, shards of deleted viruses  
falling down to the ground and into the endless space  
below. "Allow me to show you why you shouldn't depend  
on a pathetic human to run your life.." he said,  
suddenly appearing behind the purple spiked Navi,  
and in a blinding flash of white light, all that  
remained of the Undernavi was a smoking dent in the  
Undersquare platform. He glared around at the  
other Navis that had watched the murder, and they all  
quickly fled. He slowly hovered off the ground and  
floated towards the back of Undersquare to where  
a big hole surrounded by four torches lied.  
  
  
  
"Hey! You can't go in there!" shouted an odd Undernavi  
wearing all red with a glass visor covering his face.  
  
"And who are you to stop me?" Forte demanded, turning  
around, staring at the Navi behind him.  
"I'm Crushman, ranked #2! And if anyone's going to  
duel S, it will be me!"  
  
Forte walked up to stand face-to-face with this  
red Navi. "I don't have time for this. S is the  
only Navi other than I who has no operator, I  
have much to ask of him."  
  
"What..?"  
  
Crushman became infuriated at this. "You mean  
you've gotten this far.. And you don't even  
want to challenge S to a duel!? What kind of  
blitheting idiot are you!?"  
  
"Look, whether you wish to be deleted now is  
your choice, but I'm going to see S and there  
isn't anything you or your pathetic human  
owner can do to stop me."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Forte faded in, standing on a panel in the middle  
of a large platform surrounded by crystal-clear  
water. He began walking towards a skinny pathway  
when he heard someone call out from behind;  
  
"S-stop.. right... th-there..."  
  
  
A beaten red Navi with a shattered visor  
crawled towards Forte. "You.. can't... I,  
I won't let you.."  
  
"Is this you talking or your operator?" Forte  
spat coldly, turning around to face the badly  
mauled Navi.  
"Wha..?"  
"Your master likely told you to do this, am I right?"  
"Yes.. that's right.. he doesn't want you.. to  
get to.. S.. he wants.."  
  
"He wants power, that is all." Forte scowled. "And  
he's willing to get it, even if it costs him his  
Navi. But of coarse," the cloaked navi said, turning  
around to start walking down the path, "HE has nothing  
to lose but a tool."  
  
"That's not.. true..."  
  
"Don't blind yourself to the truth as I had for so  
long! Humans don't care for us Navis, they just use us to  
do things they're too lazy or too weak to do themselves!  
And if you're too stupid to realize this, you are as  
worthless as the humans themselves!"  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Serenade! Serenade!" shouted an odd, mysterious ghost-like  
Navi in a dark, ragged cloak, dashing up a stairway and up  
to an egyptian-looking Navi with golden-blonde hair, pink  
gloves and a long slim pink dress, sitting down in a rather  
large chair, a golden helmet sitting beside it.  
  
"Yes, young Navi?"  
  
"The-there's an intruder, milady.."  
  
"Don't you mean another challenger?"  
  
  
Suddenly an explosion racked Serenade's realm, followed by a  
split-second flash of blinding light. "What in heaven's name  
was that!?"  
  
"That was the intruder, milady.." said the ghost-like navi,  
shivering with fear. ".. I know we're all supposed to be devoid of  
emotions, but.."  
  
"It is fine. I must deal with this trouble-maker  
immediately." Serenade said, pulling her hair up  
and putting her helmet on.  
  
  
  
  
"Where is S?" Forte shouted, shaking the Navi he held by  
the collar, another ghostly follower of Serenade. "I demand  
to speak with him!"  
  
"I know not of whom you speak.. I reccommend you stop  
now before you are dealt with.."  
  
"Why you little--"  
  
"That is enough!" Serenade called out, striding down  
one of those abnormally skinny paths that usually only  
compressed Navis can walk through. She gracefully  
walked up to Forte, long flowing pink cloth streaming from her  
helmet behind her. "Who, may I ask, are you?"  
  
Forte dropped the phantom Navi and stared at the  
lady before him, the protective aura around him  
fading away. "Are you the one they call S?"  
  
"I believe I asked of your name first."  
  
"I am Forte." he said.  
  
"And you may call me Serenade."  
  
  
  
Forte took a slight bow. "It is a pleasure to  
finally meet you, Serenade."  
  
"I can't say the same. You have destroyed  
nearly half of my palace with that outburst  
of yours. If you wish to duel me, I suggest  
you prepare yourself, because your wish is about  
to be granted.."  
  
"That's not why I came. You are the only other  
Navi who has no operator. I came to seek your wisdom."  
  
Serenade stared at him for a moment, a bit  
surprised. "You are the most unusual visitor  
that has come here.. but I cannot ignore this  
outrage."  
  
"I am sorry for the damage I have caused you,  
Serenade," said Forte, "but I have had a very  
bad day, and the Navi ranked Number Two  
tried to stop me from getting to you.."  
  
"Well, atleast you worked your way through  
the ranks... what do you wish to know?"  
  
  
  
  
"My operator abandoned me, left me to deletion.  
I want to know how I can go to the real world.."  
Forte said after they had both walked up to  
Serenade's "throne" of sorts.

".. you wish to ask him why he left you? Your  
previous operator might have a good reason for-"  
  
"You would excuse a human for abandoning one of  
your own kind?!" Forte burst, enraged suddenly.  
He's quite moody isn't he?  
  
"Calm yourself, Forte." Serenade said calmly,  
unmoved by the relatively strong power Forte  
was emitting. "I wasn't excusing him of his  
crime, but he might not have done it of his  
own free will, you know."  
  
"He abandoned me to ease his case. He could  
have gone to prison."  
  
"See?" Seren said, taking her helmet off. "He  
might be a bit of a coward, but I'm sure you would  
have done the same, had you been in his position-"  
  
"Had I been in his position," Forte said, his  
voice one of pure loathing for the man, "I would  
have defended myself AND my Navi! But I guess I  
was just a tool to be disposed of in his eyes."  
"Of coarse not!"  
"How would you know? Did you know him?"  
"No, but humans aren't that cruel, not all of them  
atleast." said Serenade in a soft voice.  
  
"I've had it with humans, Serenade. The whole race  
had best be lucky I can't go to their world already,  
or I would delete them all!"  
"Why? What have they ever done to you?"  
  
"Don't you get it?!" Forte said, before letting out  
a sigh, bowing his head. "I thought you of all people  
would share my understanding, my hatred, for these  
humans.." Then he glared at her. "But obviously they  
have brainwashed you as well."  
  
"Forte, get ahold of yourself!"  
"I could say the same to you! Humans are worthless  
beings, they care nothing for us, yet here you and  
countless other Navis go, not only defending them, but  
being slaves under their control!"  
"That's not true! Humans and Navis work together as-"  
"-as partners?" Forte said, finishing her sentance for  
her, before letting out a dry chuckle. "I've heard these  
lies from my previous 'owner'... you are no better than  
the humans!"  
  
  
Suddenly an aura surrounded him, a wind picking up around  
his form. Serenade put her helmet back on and stood, the  
pink loose cloth flapping wildly behind her. "I thought  
you of all people would help me, but I guess I was wrong!  
When I have my way the entire Human race will be wiped  
into oblivion!!"  
  
"So you'll kill the humans to 'save' the navis? That will  
only weaken the vast majority of them that depend on their  
human operators!" Serenade said, her voice firm but still  
eerily soft.  
"No, they are just as pathetic as the humans they serve..  
I will not spare them, but rather delete them as well,  
starting with you!"  
  
"So it's a fight you want..." Serenade said with a sigh. "I  
had really hoped it wouldn't come to this, Forte. But I  
am not surprised." Her pink dress split into two loose pieces  
of pink semi-transparent cloth that floated behind her, sparkling  
with energy as she took a fighting stance, a black tube top  
revealed.  
  
Forte charged at her with an angry cry; she gracefully spun  
out of the way as he slammed his fist into the platform where  
she once stood, shattering it in an explosion of green light.  
He turned to glare at her as a green blade grazed his face.  
He then held his fists out, as a swarm of energy blasts began  
flying towards her; She began elegantly twirling, the two  
pieces of hovering pink sparkling cloth spinning around her  
with blinding speed, deflecting every shot it hit; each  
blast slammed into a platform, leaving crators all over  
Serenade's palace.  
  
"How can you take up for humans!? You have no operator, no  
reason to care for their fate!" Forte shouted as he suddenly  
appeared behind her, shooting a blast at her head. She ducked  
and tripped him, then held out her hand as a bright green  
flash of energy blinded Forte's vision and hurled him down to  
a lower platform, slamming him into the shallow water. He stood,  
his cloak drenched in cyber-water as Serenade slowly descended  
before him. "Give up this meaningless battle now and I will  
allow you to stay." Serenade said calmly.  
  
"I've got a better idea. Come with me now or I will delete  
you and your sanctuary!" Forte threatened, emitting a dark  
power the likes of which would strike an icey cold chill down  
your spine and make you tremble in fear. Serenade began  
hurling pink shining energy orbs at Forte, but each one merely  
popped like a bubble when it hit his Life Aura.  
  
"You seem sure of your plans.." Serenade said, halting the  
assault for a moment. ".. you've plotted revenge for a long  
time now haven't you?"  
  
Forte laughed. "Do you think I would formulate this scheme  
just because of one human? I've hated the humans long before  
I was abandoned! The only thing that held me back was that  
I thought my operator was atleast decent.. but since I was  
wrong about him as well, his life matters not to me anymore!"  
  
  
A sound like a squad of shotguns firing one after the other  
was heard, little blasts errupting down the path at Serenade  
with blinding speed, and before she had time to react her  
body was enguled in a large green flare; SHe flew backwards,  
landing on her feet in the shallow water, and just as she had  
time to stand, Forte kicked her back, slamming her face-first  
into one of the walkways. "It pains me to do this to a fellow  
independant Navi, but you've left me no choice!"  
  
Serenade kept a peaceful expression on her face as she turned  
to face him just in time to react to his punch, leaping gracefully  
behind him and spin-kicking him in the neck, sending him  
sprawling sideways, water splashing everywhere as he fell into  
the crystal-clear liquid.  
  
Forte stood up and scowled, cracking his neck, drenched with  
cyber-water. "Lucky shot." he commented, before jumping  
high up into the air, his fist glowing with power. "I've  
toyed with you long enough!"  
  
Serenade leapt up to meet him in mid-air, knowing there was  
only one way to deal with him, and as the two slammed into  
one another, an extraordinary pink light flooded the entire  
void of her Sanctuary.  
  
  
As the light faded like a mist, all that could be seen was  
a few ghost like navis here and there, Serenade, and  
Forte. Her entire palace had been wiped into oblivion for  
the most part, albeit a few platforms here and there.  
Forte lay unconscious on the ground, his cape badly  
torn; and Serenade knelt beside him, breathing hard,  
several cuts and bruises scarring her form.  
  
  
She reached into Forte's cloak and pulled out his Ranks,  
handing them to one of her followers. "Redistribute  
these as you see fit." she commanded, before picking up  
Forte and walking slowly towards the exit to her palace,  
which had surprisingly remained intact. As she reached  
the teleporter, she looked down at Forte's face; it  
looked calm, gentle, unlike the look of pure hatred she'd  
gotten used to. "It is truly a shame.." she sighed, stepping  
onto the teleporter as Forte coughed, his eyes barely  
opened. ".. maybe one day you'll realize the error in your  
ways... should that ever happen, you will still be welcome  
here, you know."  
  
  
  
And no matter what happened to him after that  
encounter, Forte always remembered those words...  
  
  
  
[an: Crappy ending? Yeah.  
Except it's far from over.]


	2. Apprentice

Disclaimer:  
If you didn't read the one on  
chapter one, go do it. I don't  
write this crap for no reason.  
  
Author's Note:  
I explained why Serenade was a  
girl, but I didn't explain why  
I call Bass "Forte." Well, for those  
of you who have no clue of megaman's  
origins, Bass' original name was  
Forte. Like many things, the name  
got messed over in translation.  
Like Yamatoman. "Japanman"? Jeeze,  
that must have taken a whole minute  
to figure out. Anyway, I guess I should  
give the translators a break. They did  
a good job albeit a few things like  
that, much better than I'd've done, I  
can't even read any language but  
English and some Latin. Oh yeah...  
I don't have the first one, and I'm not  
sure if Bass played a big part in that  
tale, but I won't go into it much since  
I know nothing of it. However, on this  
tale, the whole epic fight with Serenade  
took place during the events of Megaman  
Battle Network 1. Now then... On with the  
show!  
  
(Warning: This fic likely has spoilers)  
  
  
[Chapter Two: Apprentice]  
  
  
  
  
In around three days' time, Forte's  
wounds had fully recovered. He felt  
betrayed by Serenade. The Queen of  
the Undernet. The only other Navi he  
knew of with no Operator. Surely, she  
had to share his hatred for humans, or  
so he had thought untill three days ago.  
  
His mind already plotted revenge, but  
first he was to take out the humans. He  
would deal with the pink navi later.  
  
Forte took in the familiar sight of the  
deepest reaches of The Undernet. None  
but the strongest of Navis come to this  
ominous regeon. Crushman was one of them,  
but he wasn't with us anymore.  
  
  
The caped navi walked up a long staircase  
into the hidden square, looking to see  
if there were any familiar faces. These  
Navis had operators, sure.. but their  
operators rarely payed attention to them,  
so they weren't as weak as many Navis in  
the Undernet, nor were they ever seen  
running errands and petty little tasks for  
a human.  
  
"Hey Forte, long time no see." said a dark  
blue Navi with a shimmering silver eight-point  
star on his head.  
  
Forte glanced at the navi for a moment before  
walking on, ignoring him.  
  
"What's with him?" the blue Navi said. "He's  
even weirder than usual..."  
  
"Probably had another argument with his operator,  
eh, Geminiman?" another Navi chuckled, who's body  
and limbs looked like long slinkies, albeit his  
red and white head, torso, hands and feet.  
  
"I have no operator." Forte said, turning to look  
at them while he said it for a moment. "and if you  
want to live, you will assist me in annihalating the  
humans."  
  
"Look, man," said Geminiman, "we'd love to help  
you, but me and Springman can't risk doing too much.  
If we get cought, our humans would delete us for sure.."  
  
"And if we succeed, you would never have to worry  
about such a thing again." Forte said with a smirk.  
"You fear humans far too much."  
  
"Easy for you to say! You don't have a family on here,  
or an Operator to tie you down!" Springman protested.  
Normally such a tone would anger Forte, but he had a  
fair-weather friendship with these, and his mood wasn't  
too bad today. Besides, they could be of use to him  
one day.  
  
"Where's Crushman?" a third Navi asked, this one wearing  
a full pirate outfit, complete with a hook for a hand  
and a cannon on his shoulder.  
  
"Yeah, he was going to see Serenade today, wasn't he?" Springman  
asked curiously. Forte chuckled. "I beat him to it. And  
he tried to stop me." said the cloaked Navi. The other  
three stared for a moment, then busted out laughing.  
"Arr, he shoulda known better!" Pirateman guffawed.  
  
"Well, anyway, I cannot stay for long. I merely came to  
see if any of you knew any leads on my little problem."  
Forte said, walking back to the three Navis.  
  
  
"Well, I think ye should be seein' that Wily feller." Pirateman  
suggested. "Heard he's been working on things like that.."  
  
"But that was for humans to enter the Net, not navis to  
enter 'reality'.." Gemini muttered.  
  
"Well ye never know what that old coot could be workin' on.."  
  
"Thanks for the info." Forte said, who was already walking  
down the stairs back into the less dangerous parts of the  
Undernet. "Anyone who wishes to join me feel free to follow."  
  
  
Needless to say, everyone was far too afraid of what might  
happen following Forte to the ends of the Net..

  
Forte walked through a wide, confusing-to-most part of  
the Undernet. There was supposed to be a link to Wily's  
infamous WWW site here. As he scouted the area for any  
sign of a warp, he heard a scream pierce the air from  
not too far off. "Hmm, maybe some poor navi has stumbled  
upon it already." Forte said with a chuckle, deciding to  
find the source of the scream instead for now.  
  
  
  
"Go away! Leave me alone!" shouted a young custom-made  
girl Navi, who had the distinct look of a cat about  
her; well, half cat, atleast. Forte drew near enough  
to see everything well, while remaining hidden. The  
young Navi, who looked around the age of ten, was  
surrounded by purple Undernavis, all of whom had  
either an Elecsword or a Virus bomb in hand.  
  
"Look little girl, all we wants is the  
zenny, get it? So make with the money." said one  
that had five Virus Bombs in his hand, ready to  
blow.  
  
"You know I can't get anything good anymore!" said  
the little girl Navi. "I don't know how to port into  
other objects directly from the Net..."  
  
"Wrong answer. Just because you have no Human doesn't  
make you exempt from our little.. collection." chuckled  
the most spike-covered of the six Undernavis.  
  
Forte grew more curious of the situation and drew closer  
to the group. One of them shook the girl upside-down,  
dropping about 1500 Zenny from her pockets.  
  
"Well lookey here!" said one of the punks, "yer holdin'  
out on us, yeh are!"  
  
"Without her Human she's lost all common sense." said one  
of the Navis, pulling out an Elecsword and readying it to  
slash. "She's of no use to us anymore..."  
  
Forte was about to walk away but then something  
stopped him.. "Who says I've ever had a human operator!?  
I've been alone since I was five, but it's getting  
harder to hack as a Navi alone! You're the useless ones,  
having to depend on your humans to get anything done.."  
  
  
"THat's it, punk! You're dead!" the leader of the mob  
shouted, and they all leapt at her simultaneously. She  
let out a scream and there was a large explosion as ten  
Virus Bombs erupted at once, followed by a blinding flash  
of light.  
  
  
The young Navi slowly opened her eyes, and saw a  
wide purple aura surrounding her. "What the.." said  
one of the Undernavis, glaring at her.  
  
  
"I advise you run now." said Forte coldly as the  
purple shield faded. All six Undernavis turned to  
glare angrily at this newcomer. "I could say  
th'same to you, fool! Mind yer own bees'-"  
  
Before he could finish his sentance, his head  
had been blown off, courtesy of Forte. The cloaked  
Navi pulled his hand back into his cape and  
glared at the remaining five as the leader's corpse  
fell down and shattered. They all scattered like  
headless chickens, but none of them could outrun  
Forte's ballistic assault that soon followed.  
  
  
  
Five mintues later, a Cloaked navi could be  
seen walking along dented and broken platforms,  
passing a few shattered pieces of viruses and  
undernavis, purposely stepping on both  
disrespectfully. Behind him, what appeared to  
be a half-kitten navi followed, her tail slowly  
waving behind her.  
  
"I know who you are.." said the little girl. Forte  
glanced back for a moment.  
"Congradulations. Do you expect an award?"  
"No.. I was just wondering why you saved someone  
like me. From what I've heard about you.."  
  
"... you reminded me of someone." Forte interrupted.  
  
"Wow, guess I'm lucky then."  
  
"Guess so."  
  
  
They walked along into a much less damaged section  
of the Undernet, Forte still hunting for a link to  
the WWW Heaquarters.  
  
He glanced back a few minutes later. "If you're  
going to stalk me, could you atleast tell me your  
name? You certainly look different from most  
Navis seen around here.."  
  
"That's because I was inspired by a  
character from a popular video game." said  
the girl Navi. "But you can call me Mia."  
  
Forte nodded and continued on his way. THen  
he saw it nearby. A teleporter. An odd looking  
one, the likes of which he'd never seen. "Mia,  
I advise you stop following me. Trouble seems to  
follow me, and I can't be stuck protecting you  
all the time."  
  
"Who says you gotta protect me?" said Mia with  
a grin. "I'm the youngest hacker in the world,  
I can protect myself!"  
  
"So that's why you were about to get deleted  
by those undernavis." Forte smirked. Mia stuck  
her tongue out at him. "I'm gonna follow you  
whether you like it or not, so there."  
  
  
"Your age really shows." Forte said with a  
chuckle as he stepped onto the teleporter.  
"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!?" Mia said  
with a hiss, before chasing after him.  
(AN: This is a side of Forte rarely seen eh?)  
  
  
  
  
  
The cloaked Navi took one good look around the  
area. It was completely desolate. An empty  
void, white with many floating WWW Emblems.  
"What the.." Forte said, before letting out  
a loud growl as Mia teleported in. ".. well there  
goes another lead.. I'll have to personally delete  
Pirateman the next time I see him. Wily is nowhere  
to be seen.. and this is definately the WWW."  
  
"Let's get one thing straight mister, just  
becacuse I'm ten you can't go insulting  
me because of my age!" Mia yelled. Forte stopped  
momentarily and laughed dryly. "I'm sure I'll  
find what I'm here for if we stay long enough.."  
he muttered, before turning to face the little  
feline navi.  
  
"You should probably go now. This area is  
likely booby trapped, and I'll be staying for  
a very extended period of time."  
  
"Are you saying you don't want me here?"  
  
"I'm saying it will be boring for a ten  
year old." Forte partially explained.  
"Hrmph, I'll show you." Mia said with  
a scowl as she walked up to him. "Like  
I said, I'm gonna follow you whether  
you like it or not."  
  
"Fine.. how strong are you as a Net  
battler?"  
"I'm good enough." Mia said proudly.  
"Good... then you won't care to  
prove it later." Forte said with  
a smirk, before he began walking away.  
  
"Hey, you're about the stongest Navi  
on the net, you can teach me how to  
fight like one of you guys!" Mia said,  
chasing after him. "I could be the next  
Queen of the Undernet!"  
  
"And a better Queen than the current  
one no doubt.." Forte muttered under his  
breath.  
  
"What was that?"  
  
"... How do you feel about humans?"  
  
"They're useless, but... they're  
not that bad.."  
  
"Hrpmh.. you remind me of someone  
else I know, somewhat.." Forte sighed.  
"No matter.. Atleast you think they're  
useless. By next year, you'll be as  
strong as one of the pros."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
No one knew why, but Forte had taken in  
the child navi as an apprentice. He had  
given her a cloak, trained her in many  
of his abilities, and passed down several  
battle chips he'd mastered to use with  
or without the chip years ago.  
  
She now sported a cloak very similar to  
Forte's own, along with sleek black&pink armor.  
She was the spitting image of a female,  
catlike version of Forte, and both master  
and apprentice had things they knew how to  
do the other one couldn't. Of coarse, Mia didn't  
have Forte's trademark helmet, but other  
than that she could have easily been mistaken  
for his daughter.  
  
  
  
A year had passed since he began training.  
He was feeling quite good with himself for  
a job well done. He was, however, growing  
bored with the WWW area. The only peope he'd  
seen were some old WWW Navis, old Pro Netbattlers  
who'd came in to guard it while old man  
Wily was away. Of coarse they knew who Forte  
was, and neither they nor Forte saw much of the  
other, as they feared deletion if they made  
the Cloaked Navi angry. Of coarse, he did wonder  
at times what they were doing here exactly. AFter  
all, there was nothing to guard whatsoever  
in this old site.  
  
Forte stretched out and looked around. "Mia,  
where are you? It's time for your scheduled  
practice duel..."  
  
  
He heard some fighting in the distance and  
grinned. "She must be dealing with some  
unwanted guests..." he said to himself,  
walking with a quickened pace towards the  
sound of an explosion.  
  
  
  
Of coarse, what he saw was shocking at first.  
There, down a flight of stairs, his apprentice  
was fighting Forte. Rather, a clone of himself.  
  
Mia threw her cape aside and charged towards  
the faker. Right as the clone was about to  
dodge and counter, she burst into pixels and  
vanished, reforming behind the creature,  
her heel smashing into its jaw.  
  
  
The real Forte clapped as he walked down the  
stares. Mia looked up at him, then back down  
to the fake, then back up to him, a look of  
sheer confusion across her face. "There's  
two of you...?"  
  
The clone's jaw had fallen off with that kick,  
and it merely snapped it back on as it stood.  
Forte stared at it, and it back at him. Though  
the clone had a look of horror, and Forte had  
a look of cold hatred.  
  
"Who dares mock me with such pitiful replicas!?"  
Forte shouted, a purple aura surrounding his  
body. He shot a shining white ball into the  
creature, which went straight into its stomache  
before exploding.  
  
  
Bugfrags flew everywhere with the explosion,  
pelting Mia and Forte; Mia squealed and pulled  
up her moderately weak Life Aura while Forte  
walked through the rubble, crushing each frag  
one by one, glaring around. Why hadn't he noticed  
this before.. There were clones of him everywhere.  
Roughly nine or ten of them, roaming this place  
as if they were Forte himself.  
  
  
And each one had an angered look at Forte for  
deleting their clone brother.  
  
"Mia, you'd best get out of here, this is going  
to get ugly." Forte advised.  
"No way! I'm going to stay here and fight  
with you!"  
"This is not training, and you will not aid  
me in this fight!"  
"What're you going to do about i-" Mia started  
to say, but by the time she'd said it, her  
body was enveloped in an aura unlike her own,  
one that looked like a giant bubble. And one  
she couldn't break out of or move as it floated  
far away from the battle. "You will go with  
an old aquaintance of mine for now. I will find  
you when things settle down."  
  
  
  
And as he said that, the bubble disappeared and  
ten blasts hit his aura at the same time.  
  
  
  
As the smoke from the explosions cleared,  
Forte's aura was seen still intact, while all  
ten clones drew ever closer to him. "Do  
you pathetic copies think you can ever stand  
a chance against ME!?" Forte shouted angrily, his  
fists glowing with rage. "I'll delete you  
AND your creator with ease! Come at me! I'll  
crush you all!"  
  
  
Yellow auras surrounded all ten before they  
rushed at Forte, their fists glowing mildly  
as well. The real Forte jumped up as his  
left hand transformed into a gun; he put his  
right hand over it and began rapidily firing  
yellow flashing balls of energy, each one  
blasting out an aura or smashing a platform  
into oblivion.  
  
  
One of the clones fell down into the endless  
void below as Forte came down and performed  
a roundhouse kick, his heel glowing as it smashed  
five heads off; then he stood up and blasted  
the bodies into dust, before turning, both fists  
cannons, and went trigger happy you could say.  
By the time he was done, only one clone remained  
fleeing for its life, the other three "survivors"  
now no better than swiss cheese as their bodies  
fell apart into bugfrags. He looked up and glared  
at the remaining copy. "Hm... still another  
buffoon over here ..."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"What!? I can't believe it! All of them!?" shouted  
an old man in a dark room inside an island  
fortress. "This Forte is stronger than I imagined..  
his power should definately break the program. I  
think this calls for a change of plans..."  
  
  
  
  
  
"There... the last of them.." Forte muttered  
under his breath as he blasted the last cowering  
clone into oblivion.  
  
  
He looked over his shoulder as he spoke, and saw  
a blue Navi warp into the area. "... I've seen  
that Navi before..." he muttered, pulling his  
cloak around himself and fading away.  
  
  
  
The Cloaked Navi stalked the blue one all  
over the WWW's website. It became clear  
he had an Operator, but it didn't seem to  
weaken him at all. The Blue navi met and  
deleted all three sentinels the WWW had  
sent in to guard this place; Pharoahman,  
Napalmman, and Planetman.  
  
"Truly interesting.." Forte muttered,  
watching him fight. "... this would  
prove to be an excellent duel.."  
  
  
  
(a/n: You all know what happens next.  
Forte and Megaman engage in an epic  
duel. Then Forte hangs around the  
WWW and duels with him again from  
time to time as training, untill  
old man Wily finds him and tricks  
him into helping him destroy the  
Net society. I won't write the fight  
but the rest and more will be covered  
in the next chapter.)


	3. Birth of a Monster

Disclaimer:  
I reinterate. I do not  
own Megaman. And don't bother  
saying I claim to in a pathetic attempt to  
scrape a bit of cash. I'm flat broke.  
  
Author's Note:  
Who was Mia?  
... well, no one from Megaman, that's  
for sure. Hope that "original character"  
didn't tick anyone off (though it really  
shouldn't.)... You should have probably also  
noticed the apperance of three Navis from  
Megaman games that never appeared in the  
Batlte Network series (Pirateman,  
Springman, Geminiman) ...  
Mia isn't from .hack =P Sorry. But nice  
guess, I forgot about her. Think more along  
the lines of Xiao from Dark Cloud, with black  
hair and Forte's armor, with pink instead of  
yellow.  
Anyway, I skipped the whole fight with  
megaman thing. After all, the truly epic  
battle will take place after Forte is  
revived with his old faithful hound  
Treble, aka Gospel. Bass... that still  
sounds funny to me...  
  
To wrap up the MMBN3 plot, you'll find  
a few game quotes, including one that  
doesn't belong in this game. Can YOU  
spot which one doesn't belong? =P  
  
  
AUTHOR'S RANT:  
  
I can't believe the audacity of some. If you're  
going to go into a story and pollute its review  
board with false information without reading the  
tale, for the sole purpose of arguing with the  
author, atleast save shaming your account and do  
an Unsigned Review .... Serenade is a WOMAN. All  
who know jack squat about Megaman know this, despite  
all those who are confused.  
  
Keep a look on the reviews, because chances are,  
Captain Leecher will come back, infuriated at this  
rant. If not, well, we shall all rejoice.  
  
Sorry for taking this so personal. I've been tormented  
by many fools reviewing without even reading a fic, just so  
they can argue with me or be an imbecile. Most of them  
were unsigned so I could delete them, but it really makes  
me mad when someone makes a signed review of this sort.  
Enough wasting words, on with the only reason you're still  
here....  
  
Jeeze ... Serenade is a girl, people ... get over it.  
  
  
  
(Warning: Spoilers, as always)  
  
  
  
[Chapter Three: Birth of a Monster]  
  
  
  
  
Forte had finally found who he was  
searching for. After months of training  
against the Blue Navi, Megaman, Wily had  
finally shown up and locked the WWW from  
outside access after he'd come in.  
  
  
The old man stood before Forte now, with  
wild, spiked-up grey hair and the typical  
mad scientist getup. "You don't look like  
any sort of Navi I've ever seen.." Forte  
muttered, staring at the man with a look  
of distrust. "Identify yourself."  
  
"I am Doctor Wily, and I'm only here  
to help you." the evil genius replied.  
Forte grinned slightly. "So, you're the  
old man who owns this dump.. How did  
you get into the Net?"  
  
"Easy. I've made a device that allows  
humans to transport themselves into  
the internet." Wily said with a proud  
grin.  
  
".. could you make such a device that  
transported Navis into your world?" Forte  
asked.  
  
"Well, I don't have the technology at  
the moment - "  
  
"Then you've wasted my time long enough." Forte  
muttered, discontented with his answer as  
he began waking away.  
  
"Wait!" Wily shouted. "Give me time, and I'll  
make such a device possible. All I need is  
a little help from you."  
  
Forte stopped, then turned around to face  
the old man again. "... you've got my attention..."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Serenade sighed, walking towards her  
throne. Currently her palace looked  
quite unusual; instead of the golden  
helmet she usually had, she wore a  
yellow hard-hat. Her followers walked  
around with many tools, from jackhammers  
to drills and screws. And half of her  
wonderful palace had been rebuilt.  
  
She pulled up a blueprint and looked  
around at five of her followers, who were  
struggling to carry a large platform over  
to where it belonged; Serenade waved her hand,  
a pink glow enveloping the block as it soared  
into the air and moved itself into place.  
  
It'd been very dull since Forte had been  
defeated. The only Navis that attempted to  
duel her were stopped and deleted by the  
eerie Navi, Darkman, who she'd agreed to  
duel could he delete 10,000 Navis. Currently  
he was on number 3,542.  
  
In a way, she was glad of this; the palace  
didn't need another outrage at this point,  
as it was still being rebuilt. But at the  
same time, something in her missed the  
sinister Navi. She always did see the better  
side of Navis, even if they seemed to have  
none, and Forte was no exception.  
  
  
She looked off in the distance and saw  
a bubble suddenly appear a ways off.  
The queen of the undernet looked closely,  
trying to make out the figure inside the  
orb. She could tell it was cloaked... and  
had two somethings poking out like large  
pointy ears..  
  
"Forte?" Serenade asked herself; at first,  
with a certain joy that he'd returned, before  
she remembered the direness of the situation;  
if this was Forte, chances were he was here  
for revenge.  
  
But as the bubble got closer, she realized  
it wasn't Forte; the cloak was a bit lighter  
than his had been, and the pointy objects projecting  
from the head of this Navi were feline ears, not  
a helmet.  
  
As the bubble was nearly right above Serenade's  
head, she sent a small wave of force at it,  
just enough to pop the bubble and create a  
small twister of energy to slow down the Navi  
inside's impact. The cat navi landed softly on  
the platform in front of S.  
  
"Who are you?" Serenade asked, tossing her  
hardhat aside. The young Navi on the floor  
stood up and brushed herself off.  
"I'm Mia." said the feline Navi. "And.. you are?"  
  
"Serenade." said the pink Navi. "What  
business do you have here?"  
  
"No business really, that jerk threw  
me here in a bubble." Mia growled. Serenade  
looked a bit bewildered.  
"Could you be a bit more descriptive, child?"  
  
And so Mia told Serenade everything that'd happened  
the last few days. The pink navi grinned at  
the tale. "So, he's not as heartless as he  
leads others to believe, is he..."  
  
  
  
  
(AN; This will leave a plothole, if such  
bothers you, pretend this AN is a rather  
large time lapse.)  
  
  
  
An anguished scream echoed throughout the  
undernet as Forte blasted another helpess  
Navi into oblivion. Not heartless? Maybe when  
he's in a really good mood. But right now, his  
mind was too distracted to be in such a mood.  
  
  
Forte had just found out about Wily's control  
over NetMafia Gospel. About the clones being  
his idea. "That rotting weakling ... Human!" he  
he muttered, venting his anger before he went  
back to the WWW base again. "Manipulating brats  
as if I really cared..."  
  
  
The cloaked Navi held out his hand and shot a large  
blast into a high platform, decimating the Navi  
that had the misfortune of being there. "But breeding  
copies of ME! THAT I cannot permit... Humans.. worthless  
creatures..."  
  
  
  
He stared up at the staticy void above him, taking a  
deep breath in an attempt to calm himself. He just needed  
some time to think...  
  
  
Unfortunately for Forte, this was time he wasn't  
allowed. A screen popped up in front of Forte's face  
with a familiar old man in it.  
  
"It's been a while." the white-haired scientest  
said, though it was hard to see him due to the darkness  
of the room he was in.  
  
"How dare you contact me directly, human?!" Forte  
said, annoyed. Wily chuckled dryly at his words.  
  
"I see your despise of mankind has not changed. However, do  
you remember our little agreement? In exchange for giving  
you the power to terrorize humans... you will assist me  
in accomplishing my goal."  
  
  
Forte narrowed his eyes and stared at Wily. The old man  
began to laugh madly for a moment or so, before  
continuing.  
  
"The time has almost arrived to implement Cybergeddon! I just  
thought you should know..." Wily said. Forte smirked. "So...  
you will awaken Alpha..."  
  
  
"Yes, but first I must obtain the final TetraCode. I may  
need to employ your services in the near future. I will  
contact you again when the time comes."  
  
  
  
Forte nodded. "Fine." And with that, the transmission ended  
and the window in front of Forte vanished. The cloaked navi  
slammed his fist into the platform he stood on, a huge shockwave  
causing a disturbance in the entire Undernet.  
  
  
He heard a familliar voice in the distance. "I just sensed  
something... Some kind of immense power which I've felt  
somewhere before..."  
  
  
Forte grinned and began to float away from the shattered  
section of platforms towards the blue Navi whom just  
entered the area. "It's him again ... he's probably here  
interfering with the old man again ..."  
  
Forte held out his hand towards the platform and send a  
wave of destructive force at it.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"An earthquake!!" Megaman shouted, jumping back as the  
Undernet quaked from Forte's power. The invisable wave  
of energy slammed into the platform, causing a large  
ravine through the middle of it. "Whoa ... That tremor  
was massive ... Lan, the path tore open! If I had taken  
one more step, I might have been a goner!"  
  
  
"Megaman, are you OK?" came the voice of Megaman's  
operator. "We'll have to had back the way we came and  
find a different route!"  
  
"Right! But... I've never heard of an earthquake in  
Cyberworld! There must be some incrediblie force at  
work here."  
  
"An incredible force? I wonder what it could be..." Lan  
pondered.  
  
"I don't know. I have no iea what may happen next... Still,  
we have to find FlameMan immediately! Come on, Lan! Let's  
go!"  
  
"Yeah!"  
  
  
  
  
Forte hovered, stalking Megaman throughout the Undernet  
and watching his progress. "I dueled that navi once .."  
he muttered. "The most powerful Navi to ever have an  
operator ... but the fact remains, he's still a slave...  
I have no reason not to get him out of Wily's way."  
  
  
  
Megaman slowed down to a halt and looked around as  
Forte vanished into the shadows below the Undernet  
walkways. "Megaman, now what!?" Lan asked.  
  
"Don't you feel it, Lan? Ever since we came into this  
area..."  
  
"Yeah, there's that immense power, then the earthquake  
that tore apart the path ..."  
  
"No, not that!" Megaman said. "Like something's watching  
us ... This whole time I've felt someone's eyes on me..."  
  
"We're being watched ...? Now's not the time to get  
spooked, though! Let's find Flameman!" Lan said.  
  
"Right!"  
  
  
  
  
Forte teleported up high above the Undernet and  
decided to see how Megaman would do against this  
WWW Navi before he decided to strike. "After all,  
why waste the energy on a slave if there's no  
need..."  
  
  
  
After watching Megaman find and duel with Flameman,  
he noticed something was wrong. Megaman was easily  
wiping the floor with Flameman. The WWW Navi didn't  
stand a chance. Yet, somehow, it didn't die ...  
  
  
Forte squinted his eyes, then glared. "That wretched  
coward..." he said with a scowl. "He can't Netbattle,  
so he designed a Navi with an insane endurance, masking  
it so no scanners could detect it ... I think it's  
time I stood in."  
  
  
  
  
  
"Burn'em to cinders, FlameMan!!" called the fire navi's  
operator. The hideous flaming creature roared and reared  
back, ready to blow, Megaman letting out a startled cry  
as he prepared himself.  
  
"I feel the power of the strong ..."  
  
  
  
The flame beast turned to look around, confused.  
"Flameman! Where are you looking!? This is your chance!  
Hurry up and finish off MEgaman!!"  
  
The creature let out some odd noises. "What's wrong,  
Flameman!?"  
  
  
"Th... This feeling..." Megaman said, taking a step  
back. "It's that pressure I've been sensing ever since  
coming into this area! Lan! Something's coming!!"  
  
  
  
Forte hovered down to the platform in front of FlameMan.  
"Let us battle... You who emits the power of the strong..."  
  
  
"YOu want to fight us!?" Match shouted. "FLameman! Take  
care of this guy first!!"  
  
  
The creature roared and prepared to assault Forte, who  
glared icily at the monster. "Stand aside... You who  
are weak..."  
  
  
  
Forte raised his fist and slammed it into Flameman,  
the Undernet quaking in his power once again as the  
WWW Navi was obliterated in seconds with a hideous,  
blood-curling roar if agony.  
  
  
"H-How can a Navi possess this much power?" Megaman  
said, staggaring back a few steps.  
  
"The peon is gone..." Forte said with a smirk. "Time  
now for battle..."  
  
  
  
  
Forte held out his arms and began the fight by sending  
a barrage of energy blasts at Megaman. The blue Navi  
dodged as best as he could, pulling out an Elecsword  
and charging at Forte, slashing his shield to no avail.  
The elecsword shattered as Forte held his hand out,  
blasting Megaman to the ground.  
  
  
  
The Blue navi coughed and staggared up, using cannons,  
longswords and every chip he owned in a futile attempt  
to stop Forte.  
  
  
Forte's life aura flickered from a few of the stronger  
assaults, but never once did it fade as he slowly walked  
towards Megaman. "I had much higher expectations ..." Forte  
said, remembering their last fight. Unfortunately, Forte  
had grown stronger since then, and Megaman had not.  
  
"I must have made a miscalculation. Time now, for deletion."  
  
  
  
  
As he held his hand up, ready to end this short rivalry of  
power, a normal netNavi walked up behidn him. "At last  
I have found you, Forte!"  
  
  
  
The black-clad Navi turned to glare at the newcomer. "How  
is it you know my name? Who are you..?"  
  
  
"Does the Alpha Rebellion ring any bells?"  
  
"Alpha Rebellion...! You were sent from SciLab. So there  
is still a human after me." Forte said dryly.  
  
"Forte! I am going to delete you! Indeed, I must delete you!"  
the Navi exclaimed. Forte laughed.  
  
"Navi slave to the humans, do you think you can defeat me!?"  
Forte mocked.  
  
  
  
  
"In order to fight you, I of coarse did not come unprepared.  
Gather to me, power of darkness! Haaaa! DarkAura!"  
  
  
A dark purple aura materialized around the Navi's form as  
it grinned at Forte. "Forte! You don an aura yourself, so  
you must be aware... The defensive strength of this DarkAura  
far surpasses that of the LifeAura!"  
  
  
"An aura of darkness." Forte said boredly. "How impudent..."  
  
"So long as I'm protected by this aura, I could survive even  
if Cyberworld was annihalated. In short, you cannot harm me!"  
  
  
  
Forte began to hover towards the newcomer. "Hmm. Interesting.  
I shall enjoy testing out your theory."  
  
"Be my guest!"  
  
  
  
Forte held both his arms back and focused his power, before  
slamming his fist into the DarkAura, a blinding flash and a  
deafening explosion filling the Undernet as the concentrated  
blast slammed into the hapless Navi victim.  
  
  
As the light faded, the assaulted Navi could be seen  
gasping for air, on his knees. "Even wearing the aura...  
the impact was ... so powerful ..." he said in between  
breaths.  
  
  
"You've managed to withstand by Earthbreak..." Forte  
said with a hint of amusement, "But will you survive  
my next attack?"  
  
  
  
  
He held his hand up and prepared to attack, when suddenly  
Forte's hideous mug appeared above Forte once more.  
"Forte, do you hear me? This is Wily." the old man said.  
Forte halted his attack and looked up with a scowl.  
  
"I have just gathered all four TetraCodes."  
  
  
"Not that feeble-minded idiot again... Hmph." He glared  
at the Navi. "I have matters to attend. Our confrontation  
shall have to be postponed." Then he glared up as if  
staring at the man controlling the Navi. "Hear me,  
Operator!! I will have my revenge on the human race!!"  
  
  
ANd with that, Forte covered himself with his cloak  
and vanished into thin air.  
  
  
  
  
  
Forte appeared inside the new WWW server, looking around.  
"Why have I been called here now..."  
  
  
Wily walked up to Forte in his virtual form. "I have sent  
my minions to retrieve Alpha for me ... all I need from  
you is to keep an eye on my hapless minions. They've all  
lost to that Megaman so far, and I doubt if this time will  
be any different."  
  
  
"Pitiful." Forte said with a laugh. "I would think you  
of all people could create stronger slaves to do your  
bidding ..."  
  
"Yeah, well, I haven't had the time to program anything  
spectacular."  
  
"You'd just best remember our agreement, old man." Forte  
said. "Else things will become very difficult for you."  
  
"Don't worry, research to reverse the process of transferring  
humans to the Net is already underway. With a little more  
time, you'll have your wish." Wily said with a wicked  
grin.  
  
  
Forte nodded before wrapping his cloak around himself once  
more and vanishing into thin air. Wily scowled as the  
'Ultimate Navi' left. "Just a little longer and I won't have  
to bother with that fool any longer..."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Forte reappeared in the Scilab computer, thankful of Mia's  
teachings. She may not have been as good of a battler as  
Forte, but she did teach him how to hack servers to teleport  
from place to place with the greatest of ease, and with a  
little of his own mighty touch Forte was learning how to  
use it even better.  
  
  
  
Forte monitored Wily's minion, DrillMan, finding him very  
amusing. "Megaman has already begun chasing him down..."  
And in no less than five minutes, Drillman had failed.  
  
(AN; I know, it's rushed, but after this there's a lot more  
left open .... which is very, very good. So bear with me.)  
  
  
  
  
Forte laughed began creating a hacked teleport to where  
Megaman was. The SciLab server flickered for a moment before  
Forte appeared near Megaman. "I cannot allow you  
to have Alpha.." he said, snatching up the sealed creature  
and smirking at Megaman.  
  
  
"No! He's got Alpha!" Lan shouted.  
"... ... Lan! Let's use you-know-what!"  
  
"You mean the Forbidden Program?" Lan asked.  
  
"Yes! It's our only chance!"  
  
"OK! this had better work!"  
  
"Right! .... GigaFreeze!"  
  
  
  
Megaman hurled the Gigafreeze at Forte and Alpha. Forte  
held out his hand as a flash of light illuminated the  
entire server. "Did we get him!?"  
  
  
  
The light began to fade, revealing Forte, holding Alpha  
in one hand and Gigafreeze in the other.  
  
"Can't be!!" Megaman shouted.  
  
"He caught it in one hand!? Why doesn't he freeze!?"  
  
"Don't tell me he's a Chosen One, too!?"  
  
  
  
  
Forte absorbed the program and looked at Megaman with  
a hint of amusement in his eyes. "You can use the  
Gigafreeze? Hmm... That means you... This is getting  
interesting! I will let you live for now... Farewell."  
Forte said with a laugh, before vanishing into thin  
air once again.  
  
  
  
  
  
The cloaked Navi reappeared in front of Wily in the  
server. "You were right... your pathetic little minions  
failed you. Fortunately, I did not." he said, handing over  
Alpha. Wily took it and began to laugh maniacally as he  
jacked out of the Net. "We did it, FOrte!!" he shouted.  
"Alpha is mine at last!! How I have dreamed of this day! The  
end of the Net society is finally at hand!! Gather to me once  
more my WWW Operators!!" he said, his mad laughter not  
halting for a moment.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Forte watched with a sadistic grin as Wily continued to decode  
Alpha. At first, it was dull and boring to him, but after some  
bugs from Alpha had enough room to escape, things in the 'real  
world' began going hayware ... especially the military programs.  
  
  
He pulled up countless screens from the WWW server, watching  
weapons around the world go haywire and attack innocent civilians.  
"Now this is more like it... maybe the old man wasn't as much  
of a fool as I imagined..."  
  
  
  
A new screen opened up nearby showing the WWW base. Forte mostly  
ignored that screen, however. He was too busy watching mankind  
suffer for the first time in his life.  
  
  
"Welcome, WWW Operators!" Wily shouted to his subordinates as  
they entered the room. "Thanks to your efforts, Alpha is now  
under our control!"  
  
"And now, Lord Wily, we may proceed with our plan?" said one  
of his minions.  
  
"Precisely!! We shall now free Alpha from SciLab's imprisonment!"  
the old man said with glee.  
  
"This will be the event of the century! This was definitely worth  
breaking out of prison for!!" the ex-convict said with a guffaw.  
  
"So, Net society will finally come to an end!?" another one asked.  
  
  
"This will be the end of the world... Heh heh heh... I'm gettin'  
hot! Just burnin', baby!" Match said with a grin.  
  
  
"Lord Wily, I can't seem to find Inukai, BeastMan's operator..."  
  
  
"Inukai?" Wily said, before smirking. "He failed his mission.  
So I deleted him."  
  
  
They all looked shocked, before Sunayama spoke up.  
"... ... ... Hail to Lord Wily! The evilest of all! The perfect  
king for our new world of chaos!!" said the escaped con. Wily  
began to laugh maniacally.  
  
  
"Your new mission, my followers, is to protect Alpha... Protect it  
from those Net society fools! A new world awaits us! And it will stand upon  
the ashes of Net society!! It is time to crush Net society with an iron fist  
of wrath!! Delete it!!"  
  
  
His minions began to cheer and chant "Delete It!" around the time  
Forte began to tune out the monitor completely. He watched the tanks  
around the world going haywire, along with a few appliances and other  
things as the Alpha Bugs began to get out of control.  
  
"Poor, pathetic humans." he said with a cruel grin, his arms glowing  
as a small keyboard appeared onscreen, using a trick Mia had taught  
him. The cloaked navi begain to laugh as the monitors switched over  
to show a lot of missile bases. "Only a matter of time before they  
all malfunction ..."  
  
  
  
And them, much to his discontent, Wily replaced every monitor with  
his ugly mug. "Forte, the meddlers are already inside the base, and  
given time they'll have the elevator working! Go to the computer  
controlling the elevator and stop the fools!"  
  
"Bah, old man, you had better be grateful that I need you..." Forte  
muttered as he vanished into the shadows.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Forte faded into an endless void with a small platform below him,  
a few control panels here and there. Below, he saw what appeared  
to be a human in the Net. The screen flickered a bit as Forte  
cracked his neck. "Another pitiful human phased into the net ...  
unfortunately for him, he has nothing of value to me ..."  
  
  
  
"Hmm ... Just my imagination, I guess." the human said, as  
he turned to leave, only to be cut off as Forte teleported  
directly in front of him, the server flickering once again.  
  
"So, a puny human dares to come into my world... Have you  
come to die, Cossak?" Forte said with a cruel grin.  
  
The human looked shocked. "Forte...! So you ARE here, as I  
suspected! Why are you helping Wily!?"  
  
"I have no interest in that fools plan!" Forte said, his  
grin quickly fading into a scowl. "There is only one thing  
that I desire! Absolute power! Power to destroy you humans!!"  
  
  
The server began to tremble as an aura surrounded Forte,  
his power alone almost too much for the small computer to  
handle. "Arrgh!! I can't believe this power!! He's become  
even stronger!"  
  
  
"On that day that the Navi Elite Corps attacked me, the day  
you abandoned me, I crawled, near deletion, through the  
Internet, and found my self in the Undernet... Behold!"  
  
  
  
Forte held his cape up, revealing a deep gash he'd kept  
hidden untill now, an old scar that'd been on him for  
a whlie now. "This scar remains to forever remind me of  
your betrayal! But unfortunately for you, I survived,  
thanks to the "Get Ability Program" you installed  
into me ..."  
  
  
"The program that allows you to take on others' powers!?  
But, how could you become so strong?" Cossak asked,  
at the moment horrified at Forte's power.  
  
  
"Day after day, I was attacked by hordes of foolish  
Undernavis, feeding upon the power of their shattered  
remains... I gained this power through my own hard  
work and determination..."  
  
  
"All of that, just for revenge on humans?" Cossak  
said with a sigh. "Forte, it seems that we have become  
totally different... You will become a threat to mankind.  
So before that happens, you must go down with me!!"  
  
"ANd just what does the puny human think it can do  
to ME!?" Forte mocked.  
  
"Yes, I'm a human. But a human in Cyberworld! And I can  
do this!"  
  
  
  
The human raised his arms up, as he began charging up  
some kind of energy. Forte tilted his head a bit. "Hmm..?  
What's all this pwoer you're building up...? Do you intend  
to self-destruct? Human fool!"  
  
"Yes, I was a fool to have created a thing like you...  
And now I make my penance!" Cossak shouted as his body  
began to let off countless explosions. Forte semed  
insulted at this futile effort, and became enraged. "You  
cannot delete me with such pitifully small power! Wake up,  
human! Time to die."  
  
  
Forte's right fist began to glow as he prepared to  
finally have his revenge on his former operator. And in  
mere moments, there was a flash of light as the entire  
server began to quake and flicker on and off, nearly  
overloading from the power of Forte's furious assault.  
  
  
  
And as the blinding light faded, the Server, though still  
flickering a bit and badly glitched, still remained.  
Cossak's form lie on the ground, parts of him shattered  
as the rest was emitting a faint glow. "You pitiful fool...  
This is what you get for abandoning me, Cossak."  
  
"Forte ... I never abandoned... you..." Cossak coughed.  
  
"Lies! You would have been sentanced to a life behind  
bars had you not handed me over to the Officials!" Forte  
shouted. "And had you listened to me back then, you  
wretched human..."  
  
"Yes, you.. you suggested acquiring ammunition and  
slaughtering any who opposed us..." Cossak said dryly.  
"Which would have gotten us in worse trouble..."  
  
  
"It would have been better than doing nothing!" Forte  
yelled, his aura fading. He glared angrily at the  
human dying before him, Cossak's virtual body slowly  
vanishing pixel by pixel as his body was dying in  
the real world.  
  
"You really haven't changed a bit... have you..?" Cossak  
said with a cough. Forte smirked. "No, human, once  
again you're wrong. I have always hated humanity. I have  
always hated how these pathetic Navis let themselves be  
controlled by humans. But you, at one time I thought you  
were different than most humans, that you actually found  
Navis as your equal. But I was wrong about you as well.  
Now, you see, there is nothing holding me back. Now I  
live for the destruction of mankind, to rebuild a new  
world for the strong..."  
  
  
"Forte ... you'll never succeed ... Lan... and  
Megaman ... will stop you..." Cossak said. Forte scowled.  
"Silence, fool! My power grows every day! I am  
unstoppable! I am the Ultimate Navi!" And with those final  
words, he smashed what remained of Cossak's digitalized  
head, ending his life once and for all in one mighty stomp.  
  
  
  
About this time, Wily's ugly mug appeared in front of him  
on a small popup screen once more. "Forte! We were too late,  
but it matters not. Get back here in the server we're containing  
Alpha in, and wait for further instruction."  
  
  
"I tire of your countless orders..." Forte said with a scowl.  
  
"My plans are almost complete, and then you will be greatly  
rewarded for your trouble." Wily said. "Now hurry. That meddling  
brat will be here any minute now."  
  
  
Forte nodded. "Fine." before pulling up his cloak and vanishing,  
reappearing in the Alpha server where the creature was being  
decoded. He slowly walked down the path, looking down to the other  
side of the server where a large monolith stood above the start of  
a quickly spreading red organic moss-like substance that was covering  
the platforms. "Looks like the human was right..." Forte said, taking  
his time as he walked towards the monolith.  
  
  
After a minute or so, Forte stood before the black program. Wily  
appeared nearby in digital form once again. "So glad you could make  
it, Forte. The decoding is 80% complete... I just require a little  
more help from you."  
  
"Let me guess, your pitiful WWW operators failed." Forte said  
with a smirk. "Doesn't surprise me."  
  
"Good help is so hard to find these days. I am very fortunate to  
have you here, otherwise my plans would be all for nothing now." Wily  
said. "This tower is the one thing keeping Alpha contained now..."  
  
Forte looked back at the black statue. ".... What is this thing?"  
  
  
  
"Forte! That is Dr. Hikari's greatest protection program.. "Guardian"!  
If you destroy it, absorb it with your Ability Program... You'll have  
even greater powers!  
  
Forte looked at Wily oddly. "Old man! What are you planning,  
making me stronger?"  
  
  
"I desire only chaos and the destruction of Net society... Why else  
would I desire to make you stronger?" Wily said.  
  
"But you are mistaken ... It is not Net society that I hate, but you  
humans!" Forte said, before pausing a moment. Where did that come  
from...? Forte realized that. for a brief moment, he had become soft,  
felt the need to spare the Net, if just to keep Mia safe. And besides  
that, there was Serenade ...  
  
  
... he had a score to settle.  
  
  
  
"It is your desire for revenge that brings us together. What do I  
care if this aged body is destroyed...? As long as you fulfill your  
desires I will be satisfied." said the mad scientist, breaking  
Forte's train of thought.  
  
  
"So you would sacrifice even your life for this? You amuse me..." he  
said with a smirk as he popped his neck and began building power. "Just  
watch, old man! Watch me become even stronger!" he yelled as he  
smashed his fist into Guardian, shattering the outside and leaving only  
the glowing core program of it.  
  
  
"So this is the Guardian's core... If I absorb this... Nothing in Cyberworld  
will be stronger than me!" he said, as the core merged with his form, an  
intense aura of power surrounding him as Megaman/Lan ran up to them.  
  
"Wily!!" Megaman shouted.  
  
"You again! So you dared to pulse in!" Wily yelled back.  
  
  
"You again!? The Navi with the idiot of a human operator!" Forte said,  
turning to glare at the pair.  
  
"Forte!! Humans aren't as stupid as you think they are!" said the blue  
Navi.  
  
"Humans think of Navis as merely tools to be used. Navis who don't  
realize that are just as foolish." Forte said coldly.  
  
  
"I have never thought of Megaman as a tool! We're true partners, who  
trust and respect each other!! Even COssak, who created you.." Lan  
said, before Forte interrupted his speech.  
  
  
"Silence!!" Forte yelled, the server somehow strong enough to  
take the immense power he was emitting. "Exactly whatw I would  
expect from a human... Navis have no need for operators... All  
we need is the strength to exist on our own! Absolute power, so  
that we need cower before none. I will weed out weak Navis who  
cannot fight on their own!"  
  
  
"Forte, look back!" Megaman said. "I know that you once felt it!  
A feeling of trust for Cossak!"  
  
  
"Hah!! You think that I retain such pathetic emotions!?" said Forte,  
though he knew it wasn't the complete truth. "Time for you to  
be deleted!"  
  
  
"C'mon, Megaman! Let's show him how strong we are! Battle routine,  
set!"  
  
"Execute!" Megaman shouted, as he began setting up his battle chips.  
Forte's fists charged up as his aura strengthened, and he sent a  
barrage of energy at Megaman, cauasing countless explosions behind  
him, wrecking many of the server's platforms.  
  
A time bomb appeared near Forte, blasting away his aura in three  
seconds as Megaman vanished. "What the..." Forte muttered, before  
suddenly an Elecsword tore through his form. "Gah!! You insolent  
Navi!!" Forte shouted, leaping into the air as Megaman reappeared.  
He slammed his fist into Megaman, sending him tumbling backwards  
and shattering the platform he once stood on.  
  
  
As Forte began to charge up, he suddenly felt his power drain  
away as he fell to the ground. "What the...? What is this...?" he  
said, as a sharp pain began to surge through his form. "No...  
It must be the Guardian program...!! That fool Human..."  
  
  
Megaman recovered from Forte's assault and charged up his Buster,  
nailing Forte in the face and sending him flying backwards onto  
where the Guardian program once stood. "I cannot .... I cannot  
have lost..." Forte muttered, infuriated at the unfairness of that  
battle.  
  
  
"Hmm... And I was hoping that you'd delete each other..." Wily said  
discontently.  
  
"What...!?" said Forte, glaring at the scientist.  
  
  
"Forte, as I said, the Guardian program that you destroyed... It was  
the final protection placed on Alpha! It takes a lot to destroy it,  
you know. So I used your power. It's the reason I used Gospel to make  
a copy of you! Just to bring back Alpha!!" Wily explained with  
sinister laughter.  
  
"Wily... You..."  
  
  
"Navis are, after all, just tools to use!! Do you see now!? I would  
use anything to complete my plan!" Wily said, cackling madly.  
  
  
  
  
The Server began to tremble at these words. "Here it comes!! HEre  
it comes!! Finally!!" Wily shouted with twisted glee. "Alpha's  
awakening! It's the end of Network Society!"  
  
  
  
Forte's vision blurred as he glared at Wily with pure loathing,  
as a part of Alpha began to surround his form. "Graagh... You...  
you wretched ... humans ..." Forte said, his voice too weak to  
be audible as everything began to fade into darkness.  
  
  
  
Forte drifted through the empty darkness inside of Alpha, too  
drained to even move. "This... this can't be... the end..." he  
said, breathing heavily. "... no... I have no emotion ... my  
only regret is that I wasn't around to watch humanity fall..."  
  
  
He closed his eyes and began to give into Alpha's hold, beginning  
to dematerialize into Alpha bit by bit, pixels beginning to rain  
from his form starting at his toes and working their way up.  
  
  
He knew very well he was lying to himself, however, and he saw  
images of Serenade polluting Mia with kind heartedness, he saw  
Megaman destroying Alpha ... he knew all of this would come to  
pass should he vanish now.  
  
"No... Mia..." he said. "... she was like a daughter to me... I  
won't let some pathetic wretch Navi take her from me..." Forte  
said. "And Serenade.... if I die now, I'll never... I'll  
never get to ... have my revenge..." he said with an empty  
laugh. "And Megaman .... I have to defeat you..."  
  
  
His body was halfway absorbed now. "... Alpha .... You will not..  
Destroy me...!" Forte said, as he began to use what little energy  
remained to try to hack his way out of the beast.  
  
  
"... where did I learn all of this...?" he said, before shaking  
his head. "No.. it was her, that girl .. why can't I remember  
her name..!?"  
  
  
Forte became quickly annoyed, but continued his attempt to escape  
none the less. He struggled to retain his memories as Alpha's  
absorbsion began to slow down and stop, Wily's anguished cries  
filling the void as it began working on the easier prey instead.  
  
  
"That Blue Navi... Must get revenge .... but what.. did he  
look like... Agh!"  
  
  
Forte began to become enraged at his inability to remember such  
things. "Alpha, you have no hold on me...!!!" he yelled into the  
darkness. "I WILL escape you... I have you!!"  
  
  
Alpha roared as Wily's cries ended, then all was engulfed  
by an eerie silence once again. "... revenge ... who was I  
going to aven- no, get revenge upon ... Grr..."  
  
Forte began yelling out swears, as Alpha tried to resume  
absorbing his form, his memories fading away worse. "I've  
got to get out of here ... but where is here anyway ...  
Wh.. Who am I..? No.. All of this will come back to me..  
I just have to get out of here... wherever this is, it's erasing  
my memories one by one ..."  
  
One memory remained, however.  
".. maybe one day you'll realize the error in your  
ways... should that ever happen, you will still be welcome  
here, you know."  
  
The soft, female voice rung through his mind, as he began to  
set the end of the hacked escape route. ".... maybe whoever  
told me that ... can help me regain my memory ...."  
  
  
  
His body began to glow as he finished his teleportation path,  
using the last of his energy to teleport out of Alpha's form.  
  
  
  
  
  
((Author's Note: Over so soon? Nahh... We still have the little  
matter of Forte's return to cover, don't we? That will be a  
duel worth writing ....))


	4. Rebirth

Disclaimer:  
Refer to the earlier chapters.  
...  
FINE! I OWN NOTHING! NOTHING  
DANG IT! NOTHING!

Author's Note:  
Hrmph. I've blocked the only singe person  
who continued posting bull in my reviews,  
but because of this whole confusion, I don't  
think the pairing will be Serenade/Forte. There  
are unfortunately few females in this game, so  
it will be difficult to make this a romance now  
thanks to certain imbeciles filling my head with  
disturbing images. I think the Captain Leecher is  
still reviewing with unsigned aliases... Sad. But  
all of you people who like this story, thanks for  
the good reviews. This story would have been scrapped  
out of aggrivation if not for you guys. So to  
all who review; Don't expect any more rants. I've said  
it enough times, and like some of the more intelligent  
reviewers have said. It's a Fanfiction for crying out  
loud. Serenade is a girl in this tale. SO GET OVER  
IT ALREADY! Thanks to all you great people who gave  
good reviews, ye saved this little tale.

Instead of writing a new fic now, I'm going to  
just change my plans around a bit just in case. You  
never can be too sure in this sick world. S will  
still be a female, however, and anyone who argues this  
point via Reviews will be ridiculed. Some criticism, eh, that's OK, really.  
Sometimes it helps. Good reviews, those always rock,  
even with improper grammer. Sad, illiterate flames that  
make no good points whatsoever .. well, heck, even  
those are fun to mock and laugh at. To put this note short,  
the pairing will be changed. Hmm. Maybe Forte could  
hook up with a human. That'd be funny. Forte/Mayl ... heh.

This chapter will have probably one of the better fighting  
scenes in the tale. And, well, I decided to mix it up a bit...  
No clue if I'll have good or evil triumph, however either  
way, you can be guarenteed this if nothing else. Forte IS  
a force to be reckoned with, and the heroes won't have a  
pathetically easy time with him. He just keeps coming and  
coming, eh? And uh, any Forte sightings in MMBN4 ... well,  
I sought help on message boards. I detest  
MMBN4. The battle system, while still similar, is just pathetic  
in my opinion - I hate the soul system replacing style change.  
And due to lack of gameshark, I did not feel like obsessing over  
a game I barely could stand the first time through. So, his  
role in Black Earth may be inaccurate to the way it really happens.  
Please, just fill the plotholes on your own. I do not want to  
have to rewrite this chapter just because of one little scene.

Also, this story's Title might change if I can think of  
a different one ... so, uh, just keep watch on it. Sorry it's  
taking so long. I've HAD IT with this bloody friggin laptop,  
it was in for repairs. I swear, this laptop's good as gone soon  
as I get a replacement and backup all my files!

Chapter Four  
Rebirth

Deep in the heart of the Undernet, all was beginning  
to return to normal. The server damage had mostly been  
fixed, and the battle for Rankings had resumed. And in  
the most dangerous parts of the net where even the most  
vicious of Net criminals feared to tread, the remaints of  
a black-armoured Navi wearing a tattered cloak could be  
seen slowly falling down at a large platform below.

Unfortunately for the CLoaked One, his attempt to hack  
through the Net into Serenade's Palace failed due to his  
lack of energy, and he ended up drifting into the endless  
void of the Undernet once more. The lower half of his body,  
and his lower left arm were all missing, and as he landed  
onto the platform below, after a while viruses began to  
warily come closer.

A strong, dormant power could be sensed within this injured  
Navi nearing deletion, however they realized soon that this  
creature was unconcious, and slowly began building up courage  
to go delete him, as all were mere Mettaurs. One of the short,  
round helmeted Viruses waddled up to the cloaked Navi, somehow  
pulling out a pickaxe despite its lack of arms and poking the  
Navi with it.

The viruses began to mutter in their own language among eachother.  
"Does it live?" said one of them. "Poke it again!"  
"No, smash the head!" called another one. These two began arguing  
at this point, as the third one whom had actually poked the Navi  
waddled up to them. "I say we leave it alone..."

"No, poke it!"  
"Smash it!"  
"Leave it be!"  
"Poke!"  
"Smash!"  
"Leave!"

A growl emitted from nearby, and all three viruses became  
dead silent as they slowly turned around, feeling the hot breath  
of a virus behind them ...

A grey-skinned, cracked, wolf-like virus stood before the viruses,  
glaring at them with shining red eyes. One of them ran as fast as  
it could, tripping over the cloaked one as the other two were devoured by  
the wolf. The little tripped Mettaur looked up at the Navi's face,  
gasping as his eyes slowly opened to glare at him.

The CLoaked Navi grabbed the virus with his only hand, the little  
creature screaming in agony and flailing around as its body began to  
merge into the cloaked one's, being consumed one bit at a time. "I TOLD  
YOU GUYS WE SHOULD HAVE LEEeeeeff...t..." were its last words.

The cloaked Navi felt a rush of energy flow through his form as he  
looked around, his mind fuzzy. "W... Where... am I...?" he muttered,  
turning to face the wolf as it growled at him, though not threateningly.

"... What do .. you want...? ... You wish .. to help me..?" he muttered,  
before the dog roared and pounced him.

The cloaked Navi yelled out as he was tackled onto the ground, and the dog  
shattered into fifty small fragments, all of which dove into  
the Navi's form, merging with his body. When it was done, the Navi hovered  
into the air, an arm created of bug fragments materializing where his old  
arm was missing. The Navi looked at his arm and stretched it out, flexing  
its fingers, before grinning wickedly.

"This power ... it's coming back to me now." he said with a laugh. "The  
humans ... this world ... they all must suffer. And with this power,  
none will stand to defy me..."

The cloaked Navi, Forte, looked at his arm as its hand morphed into the  
head of the wolf. It began growling and barking at him, and somehow, he  
could understand it now. "... there is another ... who can still defeat  
me..?" Forte said, scowling. "Impossible! ... but if what you say is  
true ..."

He ran a hand along his arm, the wolf's head vanishing as the arm was  
covered up with black armor to look just like his old arm. "This part  
of me was restored by a mere fifty bug fragments... and this power that  
came with it... If my body was fully restored, nothing could defeat me!"

Forte reached down and picked up the shattered remaints of one of the  
viruses, absorbing the fragments and sighing deeply, looking around the  
Undernet with a newfound hunger in his eyes. Before now, he had craved  
power more than any Navi ever created. But now that he had been bested  
in combat, found an equal in power... Now that he had but a taste of  
what he could become with his new form, his desire for it grew stronger than ever.

The cloaked navi began floating off along a long pathway leading through  
the depths of the Undernet, his cape fully reformed due to the consumed  
bug fragments to hide the fact that half of his body was still missing. He  
heard a soft humming in the distance, and looked down the pathway, noticing  
a young Navi coming down the path.

"... Is that another virus?" he muttered, floating towards it as he noticed  
the feline ears protruding from its head. "Perhaps it could aid me ... Let  
us delete it.."

As he drew near however, the other young cloaked Navi turned around, her  
soft feminine features looking at him with surprise, her yellow catlike  
eyes widening. "Forte!" shouted the feline Navi.

Forte stopped, and stared at her oddly. "Who ... Who are you...?" he asked,  
and though something told him absorbing her would make him a lot stronger,  
for some reason, something inside of him kept him from laying harm upon this  
creature.

"Who am I? Some way to greet your apprentice." said the girl with a scowl,  
crossing her black-and-pink-armoured arms. She had grown fast, as most Navis  
are programmed to, and currently looked to be a teenager. Once she reached  
the age range of somewhere between twenty and thirty, however, her programming  
would likely allow her to age no longer. For the sake of not complicating this  
story any longer, let's end the explination there.

"My... apprentice..?" Forte said, his head beginning to hurt a bit as  
images of old memories he shared with this girl began flashing through his  
mind. "... I .. had an apprentice.. ?"

"Yeah, remember? Mia?" she said. "If this is a joke, it isn't very  
funny..."

"... I'm ... sorry.." he muttered, words he never thought would ever  
escape his lips. "... I cannot remember anything ..."

"What're you talking about?" Mia said, tilting her head, her feline  
tail curling into a question mark.

"I ... I just can't. Though I vaguely recognize you ... perhaps  
when I find enough bug fragments, and if I stay near you a while,  
it will come back to me ..." muttered Forte.

"Bug frags? Why would those help?" said Mia. Forte held part of his cloak  
up, revealing his lower half that wasn't there. Mia gasped. "Eek! Are  
you alright?"

"I am fine ... and I need the fragments to restore myself, and aquire  
the power I need ..." he said, as he began floating away, covering himself  
up with his cloak once again.

"Wait for me! I have an idea!" shouted the girl, skipping after Forte. He  
turned to stare at the young Navi.

"Why would you go out of your way to help me?" Forte asked. "Even if you  
were my apprentice... I couldn't even remember your name, why should you  
be so eager to assist me?"

"Because, all my life, since a month after I was created, I've been alone.  
My human operator abandoned me, and I've had no friends or family  
ever since." said Mia. More memories threatened to flood Forte's mind as  
he recalled vague images of an old man, who he seemed to feel a deep  
loathing for. "You were the only person who ever even liked me, even though  
you tried not to show it... And, I haven't seen you in ages, but I figured  
you had a good reason for it... by the looks of things, I think you have  
a valid excuse."

"... how would you suggest we acquire enough bug fragments, then?" Forte  
said. Mia grinned.  
"Thought you'd never ask! See, I've been stealing a lot of battlechips  
lately to sell back in the Undernet, but since we're in need of frags,  
we can create a machine for others to put Bugfrags in and get chips  
out of!" she said with a proud grin.

"... a waste of time, isn't it?" Forte said, giving a blow to Mia's  
pride by accident.

"If nothing else, your personality's coming back." she said with a  
sigh. "Look, you need time to recover from your amnesia before you're  
fully restored. Besides, how else would you get them?"

"By crushing navis and viruses, and taking whatever fragments they  
posess." Forte said. "That would be a uch faster method."

"In your condition? You could get hurt, or worse, deleted!" Mia said.  
"And with no Operator, I highly doubt you have a backup file."

"Nothing could delete me, even in my current state." Forte said. "If you  
know me so well, why would you doubt that?"

"Because .. I'd rather be safe than sorry." said Mia.

"Well, I'd rather be restored as soon as I can! And I don't have the  
patience to wait for some pitiful Navi slaves to blindly hand over their  
bugfrags when we could just take them all at once!" said Forte, a bit  
annoyed. "No Navi could stand a chance against my might as it is!"

He began to fly away, but before he could get very far, Mia teleported  
herself through hacking and appeared in front of Forte, pouncing him  
onto the platform below and pinning him down, somehow able eto keep him  
pinned. "I've been training a lot in your absense... and I'm not about  
to let you go get yourself deleted." she said, a grim look of determination  
crossing her features.

Forte growled as a thin aura began to form around him, readying himself  
to throw Mia off of his form and delete the feline Navi. He stared up at  
the Navi atop him, and became confused. Despite the power he was emitting  
already, this creature was still trying to keep him down. Most of the time,  
he would have just found this obnoxious, but for some reason he felt more  
lenient towards his apprentice.

"... Fine." he said, his aura fading once more. "We'll do whatever it  
was you said."

"Yay!" said Mia, hugging Forte's half-bodied self, her look of determination  
replaced by a joyous grin.

"... you can let go of me now..." Forte said after a good ten seconds.

"So?" Mia said, standing up and carrying Forte off. He sighed. "This is  
humiliating. Let go of me!" he said, pushing away from Mia so he could  
float alongside her.

"Fine, I was going to carry you the whole way." she said, sticking her  
tongue out at him as she led Forte back towards the Undersquare. An  
awkward silence prevailed for a while before they drew near.

"... just where are we going?" Forte asked, the large statue in front of  
him giving him a feeling of deja vu.

"Well, there's a Blue navi with many bugfrags who's Operator seems to love  
chip traders, he haunts an area near here quite frequently." Mia said,  
teleporting herself and Forte to the other side of the statue and near a  
giant transportation pad. They leapt into it and were transferred into  
Serenade's pink palace once more.

"If we put a BugFrag trader here, he won't be able to resist spending every  
frag he has to obsessively collcet chips." said Mia with a grin. "You'll  
be restored in no time, sensai."

"... interesting idea... and what untill then?" Forte said as Mia dragged  
his floating self into and across the crystal clear pool of water that  
surrounded the no-walled palace as far as the eye could see.

"A while ago, I created myself a little fortress when S had attempted  
to ... how did she put it ... 'show me the error of my ways.'" Mia said  
with a laugh. "That's one thing I always liked about you, you're one of  
the only other people I know who atually hates humans as much as I." It  
seems Mia had become more like Forte despite his absence.

"Heh... I may not remember a lot, but that much I can still recall." Forte  
chuckled dryly.

Mia led Forte across the shallow water surrounding Serenade's palace untill  
they stood under a rather large platform. "Stay here, be back in a second."  
Mia said, leaping into the air and vanishing. Forte stared around, this place  
eerily familiar to him somehow. And for some reason he felt a strong urge  
to destroy it...

The cloaked Navi looked down at his reflection in the cyber water below him,  
cursing his amnesia. "Perhaps after I'm restored, I'll regain my memory  
as well..."

Forte grew tired of waiting and floated up to the platform, silently landing  
behind Mia, watching as she pieced together an odd black contraption, well over  
halfway done with it by now.

"I cannot recall why I spared you, however..." Forte thought to himself as he  
stared at the young teenage Navi. "You irritate me the likes of which no one  
even dares to consider... and by your lack of fear, you're either very powerful,  
or very stupid..."

Mia put her hands on her hips and let out a happy miow, before opening the  
top of it and beginning to place chips inside, completely oblivios to Forte's  
presence as he pondered, her feline tail waving back and forth as she worked.  
Beyond the confusion of what kept him from killing her, he still wondered why  
she wanted to go out of her way to help him.

"There we go, all finished!" Mia exclaimed, closing the top of the chip  
trader before turning around. She let out a soft shriek, then a sigh of  
relief. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"So what do we do now?" Forte said, staring oddly at the dark grey boxlike  
contraption.  
"Just wait a few minutes ... I heard the Blue Navi enter just now... He'll  
be attracted to this like a moth to light." Mia said with a triumphant grin.  
She had a cunning mind, somewhat atleast, and she knew it.

And sure enough, as the pair went to hide under the platform once more, the  
blue Navi found his way to the trading machine. "What's this ...?" the navi  
said, staring at the contraption. "It has something written on it ... Bugfrag  
Trader? Awesome!"

The Blue Navi began loading the thing down with bugfrags. "Lan, we finally have  
a use for all these things the viruses dropped!" he said, putting in more frags  
and collecting the chips that came out of the machine in return. And after a long  
while, he finally ran out of frags. "Wow! This is great! Jack me out and back in  
so I can heal in the PET and come back to test these chips out!" the Blue Navi said.  
"... oh yeah, have to leave this place first. Let's go!"

And with that, the blue navi was gone as swiftly as he came. Mia and Forte hovered  
up to the frag trader, and Mia opened up the top of it. Forte looked into the  
machine, a cruel smirk crossing his lips. "Yes. .. you have done very well for me..."  
he said, reaching a hand into the trader machine right about the time Megaman left.

Forte threw his head back and let out an inhuman growl, bugfrags coursing up his  
arm like a stream of water and sliding down to reform his lower body, the rest of  
the frags pouring into his chest and being absorbed completely. As the fragments  
finished forming the shape of Forte's body, he closed his eyes and the old black and  
yellow armor formed itself around himself once more.

"Genius, aren't I? How do you feel?" Mia said with a grin, glancing off into the  
distance as Megaman returned from being healed. "Quick, under here, he's back"

"I need no more power." Forte said as Mia grabbed his arm and teleported him back  
udner the platform.  
"But it's better to be safe than sorry ..." Mia began before Forte interrupted  
her.  
"I said, I need no more power. Nothing stands a chance against me now!" Forte  
said before letting out a quaking roar, his arm shifting into the head of Gospel  
for a moment before returning to normal.

"Fine, suit yourself." Mia said with a sigh. "You'll learn the hard way to listen  
to me more."

Forte smirked. "And you'll learn the easy way that I am not to be underestimated."

The cloaked Navi looked up as he heard footsteps. He snarled as the wolf head on  
his arm began growling, before merging back to his normal arm once more. "Wha..?" came  
the familiar voice of the blue navi. "Didn't you hear that, Lan? Like an animal  
growling ..."

Forte rose into the air and let out a deafening roar, his voice echoing throughout  
the palace as he drew upon every bit of power he'd absorbed, feeling an insane power  
coursing through his veins. "I have awakened..."

"I sense a powerful force approaching us..."

The CLoaked Navi's aura surrounded him once more, vanishing into the air as the  
server began to tremble at his power. He materialized before Megaman, and glared at  
the blue navi. "Forte...!"

"Forte? Who could that be ...?" the cloaked navi said, staring at the Navi with  
a lack of interest.

"He.. He doesn't remember? But ... He's far stronger than before ...!" Megaman  
said, taking a step back.  
"I search only for power. I have no name ... I exist only to battle ... I shall  
test the power that the bugs gave me ... On you!"

Megaman took a stance as an elecsword materialized over his arm. "There's no  
running from this fight ... You won't be so lucky this time!"

Forte smirked once more and hovered down to Megaman's level. The Blue Navi  
instantly rushed in to slash at Forte, his sword bouncing off of Forte's aura and  
flickering away. The cloaked Navi laughed dryly, as Megaman began futilly shooting  
at the aura. "Give up, fool. No Navi slave stands a chance against me."

"Is that so?" Megaman said with a smirk of his own, as a bomb smashed into  
Forte's aura, shattering it. "What the.." Forte said, before he felt an electric  
blade stab through his gut. "Gah.. How..?" he growled, Megaman jerking the blade  
from Forte's side with a laugh, before being kicked in the gut and slammed backwards  
a ways. "Fool." Forte said with a scowl as his aura reformed. "That was nothing  
but dumb luck."

"We'll just see about that." coughed Megaman as he stood up, tossing a bomb  
up and down. Forte glared at Megaman and held his arm out, his lower arm forming  
into Gospel's head again.  
".. What the ... Gospel?" Megaman said, before he was consumed in flames.  
"Ahhh..!" he yelled, quickly using a recovery chip as his minibomb was  
shattered by the attack. As soon as the fire faded, Forte smashed into Megaman,  
headbutting him off the platform and into the water below. "Give up, you're only  
prolonging your own misery." Forte said, jumping down and landing on top of Megaman,  
stomping his chest.

He looked down and glared at Megaman as he stomped him ... only to see a small  
plushie of Megaman with poor stitching. "What the.." he said, looking up just in time  
to see a shuriken smash into his shield and shatter it once more. Megaman landed on  
Forte's chest from his high jump and grinned. "Hello." he said, holding a hand to  
Forte's chest as a Hero Sword materialized, piercing through Forte's chest before  
the blue navi sliced through Forte's body and did a backflip off of him.

"You'll pay for that.." Forte growled, his sliced up body reforming itself before  
it even hit the ground. He heard an inner growling from Gospel as images flashed  
through his mind, and he grinned cruelly, standing up straight and pointing a finger  
towards Megaman. "So ... you thirst for revenge as much as I ..." Forte said. "Well  
then, don't waste any more time. It's your turn."

Megaman blinked. "What the heck are y"

Before he could finish this sentance, however, bugfrags began pouring out of his  
chest, forming a pair of large, grey claws, which lunged at Megaman in moments and  
began slashing at him wildly, an eerie howl echoing through the void of Serenade's  
palace. Megaman jumped back to avoid the fist claw, firing his buster rapidily  
at the second, each shot merely bouncing off the hard bugfrag shell. The claw  
slammed into Megaman, knocking him back aways, the blue bomber jumping back to his  
feet in time to see a claw flying towards him, the other claw coming from the  
opposite side. Megaman began charging his buster as he leapt into the air, aiming  
it downwards as the claws collided and firing a charged blast onto them, shattering  
one into hundreds of frags which quickly reformed into a claw as both turned to  
skyrocket towards him once more.

A barrier formed around Megaman as he began his swift descent, pulling out a  
sword to slice one of the claws in half as the other one bounced off of his  
barrier. The blue Navi landed on the platform below, pulling out a pair of electric  
blades and fending off the claws as best as he could. Forte smirked and began  
slowly walking towards the Blue Bomber as he fought against Gospel's assault,  
Forte's arm cracking and turning grey once more as it morphed into the head of  
the wolf-like beast. He held the arm out towards Megaman as the claws shattered  
to pieces, each fragment flying into the arm and merging with it.

Megaman stared at the face of Gospel through his barrier for a second before  
it opened its mouth with a roar, flames spraying from its mouth and engulfing  
Megaman in a veil of smoke and fire. As the fiery hot stream finally ended,  
Forte chuckled darkly as he withdrew the arm with Gospel's head around it, the  
arm reforming back to its original black and yellow form. The cloaked Navi  
cracked his neck as the smoke slowly faded to reveal Megaman, the blue bomber's  
barrier flickering away. "Lan, I need more battlechips, hurry!" Megaman said,  
looking up for a moment.

Forte took a step closer to Megaman and chuckled darkly. "You will  
suffer for your dependance on humans." he said with a cruel smirk, holding  
his twin busters up, beginning to focus his energy into them. "Prepare  
to be deleted, blue navi..."  
"I hope this works.." Megaman said, turning to look at Forte once  
more. Forte aimed his buster cannons at Megaman, and as he was nearly  
ready to fire. Megaman held one of his hands out towards Forte with  
a smirk of his own. Forte scowled, before hearing something tearing  
through the ground behind him...

The cloaked Navi turned around just in time to see a bamboo-like spear  
stab through his shield, shattering it like fragile glass before  
retreating back into the earth. "A meaningless effort. It takes mere moments  
to regenerate my protective aura"

Before he could turn around to face Megaman once more, however, something  
sliced through his hip and through his left leg, feeling as if millions of  
tiny razor blades were tearing him apart on the inside of the wound. He let out  
a gasp, but before he could blink, another blade slashed through his waist,  
feeling as if an intense flame was incinerating him from the inside. A split  
second later, another blade sliced through his abdomen diagonally, water  
splashing all over him as he felt like his body was being frozen solid, before  
finally something stabbed through his gut, powerful electricity surging through  
his soaked form and draining him of most of his energy.

After the blade assault was finally over, Forte fell to his knees, letting  
out a couple of coughs. "How ...?" Forte said in disbelief, his lower body  
beginning to lose color and crack up to look like Gospel's skin once more, his  
strength nearly drained completely. "It is impossible to defeat me...! I am  
destruction incarnate! I have far more power than you!" he yelled, slamming his  
fists into the ground. "How...?"

"Because you are fighting alone!" Megaman said with a triumphant grin,  
standing tall behind Forte. "As long as Lan is operating me, I have no limits!"

"What do you mean? Strength does not rely on others!" Forte said, turning  
to face Megaman with a scowl. He couldn't believe how stupid this navi was. He'd  
become the most powerful Navi in the net, and not because of some pathetic human...  
"You're wrong! When Navis are able to completely trust their operators,  
humans, then they are finally able to realize their power! You, too, once had  
a human who you could trust like that!" Megaman said, causing unwanted memories  
to begin resurfacing in Forte's mind. "... I trust no one but myself!" Forte  
exclaimed.  
"Forte, try to remember!"

Forte held his helmet as more memories flooded his mind, of a time when  
he was just created, a time where he actually relied on a human, letting out a  
short roar. "Who is this man who invades my memory?" he demanded. "What is  
this ... feeling? That I ... need him? ... NO! Never!" he snarled. "I trust  
no one! Power is all! Dstruction is my purpose!"

The cloaked Navi roared, holding his arm up and beginning to charge the  
last of his energy to escape. Somewhere, anywhere, he had to find a place to  
rest, to rebuild his strength. He could have sworn he heard a young voice  
calling out his name, but before he could worry about it, the world around him  
fading as he fell unconscious.

Forte slowly opened his eyes, staring up into a static-filled void  
that looked eerily familiar, though still different somehow. "This place  
looks like the Undernet ..." He sat up and looked at his arm, which had  
transformed back into Gospel's head. The rest of his body still looked  
grey and cracked, looking as comprised of bugfrags as it was. "Where have  
you taken us, Gospel?"

He stared around as a faint growling emitted from his arm. "... Black  
Earth...? And what exactly is that?" he muttered under his breath, before  
realizing that some of his strength had returned. Forte stood up tall once  
more, his torn cloak waving in the slight unnatural wind that swept by now  
and then. He took a deep breath, feeling a dark energy as abundant as the  
air around him. "This place will suit me well for the time being ..." he  
said, the bugfrag-comprised sections of his body reverting back to his  
original black and yellow armor, his aura reforming itself as he already  
began to regain his full strength. "Very well, indeed..."

A/N:  
Don't kill me. XD I know this took forever, but I went in a huge period  
of writer's block. Hope people still read this story. With luck, the fifth  
chapter will be up soon.


	5. Taking Over Me

Disclaimer: I do not own Megaman Battle Network.  
If I did, things would be a LOT different.  
Seriously.  
-  
Author's Note:  
Steve's computer has plagued my writing beyond reason. Every time I halfway wrote Chapter 5 here, the laptop crashed and took the work with it. sigh  
But guess what? I finally got my new Dell! Yay!  
... wait, now I have no excuse for laziness.  
I wAS LYING! I HAVE NO SPIFFY NEW COMPUTER!  
Anyway, this story will do things a little differently.  
While it will still take Forte's point of view every now and then, this chapter will focus on other characters,  
mainly Forte's apprentice. Also, from here on in due to issues with and spacing AGAIN, I'm going to have to reinstate the ----'s to do my spacing for me.  
Mess that up, Document Manager, I dare you!  
By the way, I've recently taken a liking to a certain Lan pairing since I watched the show, so expet a little bit of non-Navi romance. Yes, there's a frickin' age difference. If people can write about gays, incest, and all the other stuff I've seen on I can write a romance about a decade apart.  
Oh, and this chapter is NOT a songfic. It was merely inspired by the Evanescense song I took the name from. And to make up for my previous laziness, this chapter will be riddled with a couple of flashbacks filling in the skipped time of when Forte trained Mia. And finally, there will be several cameo Navis from other old Megaman-series games. I apologize in advance if their attacks are inaccurate to their original selves, I can't remember things -that- good. -  
-  
-  
Chapter Five  
-Taking Over Me  
-  
-  
-  
-----Mia sat cross-legged before Forte, who stood staring at her with his usual, seemingly heartless eyes. The young neko navi stared back at her trainer, looking a bit sad. "A week of training," Forte said coldly, "and you haven't mastered even the weakest of life aura generating"  
----"I'm trying my best"  
----"Obviously your best isn't good enough!" Forte said, crossing his arms,  
before seeing the little girl beginning to sniffle. He continued to glare impatiently at his pupil, Mia's eyes beginning to well up with tears as she stared back. The cloaked Navi's eye twitched slightly, before he sighed,  
kneeling down in front of the young girl. "But we're here to fix that. You'll learn it soon enough." -----Mia nodded, swallowing hard as the waterworks stopped, Forte standing tall once more. "Now, build up your energy and focus it in an empty sphere around you." he said as his own aura materialized around him. Mia sat there for a few minutes, closing her eyes and concentrating on the task as hard as she could. Forte stood in front of her, watching her like a hawk. "Well?" Forte said after another couple of minutes. Mia sighed and opened her eyes. "I can't do it..." she said sadly.  
-----"Then you aren't trying hard enough." Forte said, his right arm turning into a buster cannon and pointing it at Mia. "You have the power within you.  
Use it"  
-----Mia looked up at Forte and swallowed hard. "You wouldn't really shoot me, would you"  
-----"You wouldn't really want to find out, would you?" Forte said with a smirk,  
cocking his gun and aiming it once more. -----Mia gulped and quickly resumed attempting to recreate her own version of Forte's Life Aura. Silence filled the void of the WWW Server once more as a minute passed by with no progress. "It isn't that difficult." Forte said,  
beginning to focus his power into his buster as his aura faded away once more, the barrel of his buster gun beginning to glow yellow. "Consider this your first lesson of combat training. Protect yourself"  
-  
-----Mia stared at the glowing barrel of the gun. "I-I didn't know I'd have to get shot at!" she said a bit panic-stricken. "You didn't say you were going to shoot at me"  
-----"Then you will recieve your second lesson, as well." Forte said as he placed his free hand over the gun, ready to fire. "Always expect the unexpected"  
-----Mia screamed, closing her eyes as a blinding flash lit up the server, fading after a few seconds to reveal a shining aura around the hacker Navi. Forte laughed slightly, firing at the aura, the shot bouncing off and flying by his head. Mia slowly opened her eyes to look at the aura, letting out a squeal of glee.  
"I did it, I did it, I did it!" she said, hopping up and down as her aura faded away.  
She leapt at Forte, pouncing him onto the hard platform in a hug, still shouting triumphantly. "Didja see that? I did it! I did it"  
-----Forte seemed irritated by this gesture of affection at first, but eventually sighed and brought his arms around to hug the neko navi back. Mia began letting out a sound similar to purring, feeling happy for the first time since .  
-  
-----She blinked as she felt cold once more, Forte and the WWW fading around her.  
She was back inside the little virtual sanctuary that was her old PET, a small square pink platform surrounded by a bubbly void. A large screen in front of her showed her the outside world, where her operator, a young girl with brown pigtails,  
was currently in the backseat of a minivan, her mother driving her to a toy store no doubt. It was pouring down rain outside, and she felt very happy to be in the warm shelter of the car, forgetting about her previous flashback for some reason.  
The young feline Navi stretched out, lying on her back as the screen moved above her as if to keep an eye on her. "You sure look excited today, Megan." the young navi commented. "What's going on"  
-----The girl ignored the navi as her mother parked the car and ran into a toy store, her father sitting in the passenger seat to keep an eye on her. Mia looked near the window and saw the volume was muted for some reason. "Odd.." Mia said,  
puzzled. "It's not like Megan to mute me ... Must have been an accident"  
-----Megan stared out the window into the pouring rain, watching for her mom to return. Her father sat in silence for a few minutes before turning around to face his daughter. "Your uncle was really nice to custom-make a navi like Mia for you..." he said, his daughter ignoring every word of it. "You really should be more grateful"  
-----"Well, he should've made her a better fighter." Megan said, continuing to stare out the window. Mia laughed a little bit, as Megan always teased her about that. It was true. She didn't know the first thing about combat, and couldn't even use the majority of battlechips right. The father sighed and turned to face the dashboard once more as Megan's mother returned to the car, soaking wet, and handed a bag over to the dad.  
-----"What's that?" Mia asked, mostly to herself since her PET was muted, as Megan's father began tinkering with some toy of some sort, Megan repeatedly saying "thank you"  
the entire five minutes it took.  
-----"There you go." he said, passing back the odd device to his daughter. Mia blinked,  
a slight horror of being replaced taking over as she recognized the device to be a PET,  
but she quickly dismissed the thought. "Probably a new Navi to help me fight." Mia said,  
watching her operator boot up the new PET as Megan's mother cranked up the car and began the drive home. Mia heard the new Navi's voice, and became curious. "Megan, let me see!" Mia said, before remembering the volume was muted still. She reached up and closed her eyes as she concentrated, doing a basic hack of the PET to switch the volume back to normal. Mia looked at the window above her now that the volume was unmuted.  
"Megan, let me see"  
-  
-----"What..?" the girl said, before picking up Mia's PET. Mia looked over at the other PET and saw a strange green Navi, who's lower half was a silver, robotic horse body. He held a long lance in his hands as he looked up at the feline Navi. "Hi, I'm Mia, what's your name?" she called to the other PET.  
-----"Centaurman." the other Navi said in a deep, smooth voice. "Pleasure to meet you,  
didn't know I'd be sharing an operator"  
-----"You're not." Megan said, looking at Mia's PET. "This one's a defect"  
-  
-----"Defect!" Mia said, staring up at her operator. "I most certainly am not defective! What-What're you doing?" -----The feline navi stared up in horror as her operator reached and pressed the button to turn off the PET, the void fading to darkness as the power turned off. Mia stared around as the darkness surrounded her, her mind swimming with disbelief, anger, horror, and sorrow, letting out an ear-splitting scream .  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-----Mia screamed as she woke up, gasping for air as she sat up on the small pallet set up on a little square platform surrounded by shallow, crystal clear water. She put a hand to her forehead, wiping some sweat from her brow, her long raven hair falling to hide her face. After Forte vanished, Mia tried her hardest to track him, but even with her hacking prowess she was unable to trace where he went. And despite aiding a sinister Navi regain power, Serenade allowed Mia to continue living in her palace.  
-----"What's the matter"  
-----The feline Navi turned to see a woman in white pants and a black tube tob walking towards her, long pink strips of cloth streaming behind her. The Underqueen walked up to Mia and sat next to her, a look of concern visible through the open gold helm. "I heard you screaming just then. Did you have a bad dream"  
-----Mia nodded, wishing it was Forte there to comfort her instead of Serenade. "Unlike humans, dreams of navis are often just images of the past. What memories could be tormenting you so"  
-----"None of your business." Mia said, staring off into the endless waters. Serenade smiled knowingly - a smile that has always irritated Mia for as long as she could remember knowing the queen of the undernet. -----"You miss him already, don't you?" Serenade asked. Mia sat in silence for a split second before nearly hissing at the queen.  
-----"Why would I miss that egotistical jerk!" Mia said quickly. "I was just using him to learn how to fight. That's all"  
-----"If you were just using him," Serenade said, "you wouldn't have saved him. Had he been left in his condition after just escaping Alpha, the net officials would have soon discovered and deleted his remains"  
-----"Yes, well ... It was my duty." Mia said matter-of-factly. "I was simply repaying him for teaching me how to defend myself. A pupil is entitled to, if not expected to,  
protect his or her master in time of need"  
-----"Ah, yes." Serenade said, giggling just slightly, before trying to sound serious once more. "And isn't a pupil entitled to, if not expected to, find his or her master should he or she vanish"  
-----"I've tried, he didn't leave any traces of any kind." Mia sighed. Serenade grinned. "So you must miss him if you've been searching for him." she commented.  
-----"Yes! Fine! I miss him! Happy now?" Mia said, sticking her tongue out at the queen of the undernet. -----"Yes." Serenade said, giggling once more, before becoming serious once more. "The question is, are you happy just sitting there waiting"  
-  
-----There was a long silence after that, before Serenade stood up and began walking away. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to assist you, if I'm not busy of coarse." she called back, taking the Undernet rank 1 from a nearby phantom navi and vanishing to redistribute it.  
-  
-----Mia sat there in silent thought for a minute or so, staring at her reflection in the waters below. 'What's wrong with me...?' she thought to herself, staring at her own sad expression. 'He's always so cold, he treats me like a child...' She started to sound angry as her facial features changed to match her mood.  
-----'Why should I care if he... if that stupid jerk dies, I shouldn't!' she yelled in her mind, splashing her reflection and staring at it as the water slowly calmed,  
imagining Forte's face in place of her own as her anger faded into the same sorrow she'd been feeling a lot lately. 'I really shouldn't'  
-----She began remembering all the good times she'd spent with Forte, remembering how despite his cold behavior, he always slipped up and showed he cared for her.  
The only Navi who cared for her besides Serenade, but Serenade was more of a mother than anything. She hugged her knees close to her, feeling a couple of tears escape her eyes as she stared off into the void as voices ran through her mind.  
-----"Your age really shows." she heard Forte's laughing voice. At the moment, she felt no better than a helpless child... but she had tried her best to find him.  
-----"Obviously your best isn't good enough!" she heard Forte's voice yell in her mind from when he was training her a long time ago. "... but we're here to fix that"  
-  
-  
-----She began to remember how Forte never gave up on her no matter what happened,  
how the only cruelty he ever showed was for the best when she was training under him. "... I won't give up on you either." Mia said, standing up and putting her black cloak on, looking up and closing her eyes, vanishing to begin her search once more.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
------Meanwhile.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
------In a dark, mysterious server in the deepest reaches of the Net, a cloaked Navi could be seen stirring as he just woke up, shaking his head slightly as he stood. "Where.. where did you take us, Gospel?" Forte said, deeply inhaling as he closed his eyes. "This place... I've never felt anything like it." he said as he felt a dark power begin to fill him with each breath. "I can feel my strength returning"  
-  
------He suddenly opened his eyes and turned around to open fire, blasting off the head of a shadowy Navi behind him as the rest of its body shattered. The Super Navi scowled, glaring around through the darkness around him as he saw other dark figures moving around. "I'm feeling generous today. Leave now and I might let you live." Forte warned. The shadowy navis around him just snickered, each one pulling out a weapon and advancing on him as several bombs and shots were hurled in his direction, a large explosion surrounding Forte moments later. ------The dark Navis continued to cackle, but quickly shut up as they realized, much to their horror, that beneath the fading smoke, the black-armoured Navi stood tall, a shining purple aura around him. Forte glared at the Navis as his right arm became cracked and grey, morphing into Gospel's head, pointing it at one of the terrified dark Navis and firing a large stream of energy from Gospel's mouth, nothing but a few ashes strolled across the platform left as proof a Navi once stood there.  
Forte smirked cruelly as he glared at the other Navis, the rest of them running in fear as he blasted two more of them, his arm turning back to normal afterwards as he popped his neck, relaxing.  
-  
-------"Bravo, Forte." cackled a familiar old voice. Forte turned around to glare cruelly at an old man standing behind him with unkempt white hair and a white lab coat. ------"You... You're supposed to be dead." Forte said, scowling. "I heard Alpha absorbing you"  
------"Did you honestly think the most brilliant human mind in the world wouldn't create virtual backups of himself?" the infamous Dr.Wily said. ------"Relentless old man.." Forte said, his left arm turning into a gun as he pointed it to Wily's head, cocking it back. "Let's see if you were smart enough to make more than one"  
-  
------"Wait!" Wily yelled. "Kill me now and you'll never get what you desire most"  
------"And what would that be?" Forte scowled, charging his buster gun.  
------"Revenge against the humans." Wily said. "I have something that will help you do that now"  
------"And why would you go out of your way to find me just to give it to me?  
You hate me as much as I hate you." Forte said, his glare not fading for a moment.  
------"I always keep a promise. Besides, I need somebody to test it." Wily said with a shrug as he pulled out a small shining crystal. "This is a working beta version of a navi materialization program. It has a few bugs in it, but it will should work"  
------"Your not sure of your own program, and you call yourself a genius?" Forte said with a smirk.  
------"It is extremely hard to defy the laws of physics even for me!" Wily yelled,  
before calming down once again. "It isn't easy to use, that's the main bug in the programming, and the reason I haven't been able to test it yet"  
------"What good is a flawed program to me?" Forte said. "I think I'll just shut you up now and get this over with"  
------"Have patience, you fool, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity!" Wily said with a growl. "The only reason I'm even rewarding you for helping me is we're both very much alike"  
------"Don't ever compare me to scum like you." Forte said icily, his left arm morphing into Gospel's head, the wolf snarling at the mad scientist.  
------"Fine." Wily said. "You're very smart like me as well... you'll be able to work through the flaws in the program"  
------"I'm losing my patience with you, old man, get to the point"  
-  
------"The program will allow you to form your body in the human world, but in order to do it, you must have a great deal of energy yourself, as well as great knowledge in hacking. Unfortunately, since the program is such a difficult thing to accomplish, one Navi's energy isn't enough to materialize anywhere. You must find a port leading directly to the Human World, such as a computer port or a port in a large server for people to jack into for maintenance, and hack through it with the program. And whatever you do it from, it has to have a very strong source of power... such as a SciLab server, or the servers for a large television station." Wily handed the program to Forte. "I'm sure you can figure something out"  
-  
------Forte looked at the program warily as Gospel took it in its mouth, swallowing it as the super navi began absorbing the program.  
-  
-  
------Suddenly Forte's entire body up to his neck turned into the cracked grey pattern of bugfrags, yelling as a shining light poured from the cracks along his body, especially in the middle of his chest as the program installed itself in his form. Wily cackled a little bit as the glow faded, Forte falling to the ground,  
gasping for air. ------"What... what did you do to me...?" Forte said as he staggared up.  
------"Don't worry, I would be a fool to destroy the only Navi powerful enough to beta test my ingenious program." Wily said. "The program has installed itself in you,  
set to automatically activate whenever you attempt to traverse through a port between the cyber world and the human world"  
------Forte stood up and looked at his hands as his body recovered its old look once more. He smirked, quickly charging his buster and pointing it at Wily's head.  
"Allow me to say thanks." he said.  
------"Wai--" Wily started to say before his digital head was blown off his shoulders in one big shotgun burst. Forte put his gun away as his cloak covered his body once more, closing his eyes. "That felt good"  
-  
-------He heard a soft growling from beneath his cloak and looked down. "Gospel, we need to find somebody... you got us here, take us back to somewhere I know." Forte demanded, as he vanished into the darkness once more.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
------In the Human World, the people of the DNN Server were in a panic as all of their television stations were going ballistic, and all Navis they had sent in to figure out what was going on had been swarmed with viruses and deleted. Fortunately, they had called for professional help half an hour ago, and as well over half of the server became currupted by whoever was doing this, a group of pro NetBattlers were already headed up the stairs to the DNN servers to deal with it.  
-  
------A man with shades and a long white trenchcoat walked into the room first, saying in a somewhat strong british accent, "What's the situation"  
------"Our last team found the hacker, but wasn't able to do anything ... It appeared to be a Navi without a net-op causing all of this chaos." one of the directors said as he pulled his PET out of the control panel to allow more room for the newcomers. A young boy with brown hair and a bandana came in next to the man in the white trenchcoat.  
------"Lan, do you think it's him?" Megaman asked from inside the brown haired boy's PET.  
------"I don't think so... Mr. Famous, has Sci-Labs had any trouble with Forte in a while?" Lan asked.  
------"No, there've been no more sightings of the super navi, though we still have navis hunting him untill we have proof of his deletion"  
------"You're pathetic if you can't deal with an abandoned Navi." a boy with layered white and black hair said coldly as he joined the other two, followed by a somewhat large boy with a mohawk and darker skin, a taller and more professional looking man with glasses and slightly messy orange hair, sighing slightly. "You can't underestimate any Navi." he said as the netbattlers took seats around the control room, a young lady with two long brown ponytails taking a seat beside the orange haired man, and a woman in her twenties with long black hair and a little razor wheel hairpin in her hair sitting beside Lan.  
-------"Ready for an awesome battle, Lan?" the woman said as everyone plugged their PETs into the server and putting in battlechips as they prepared to jack in.  
-------"It's only another virus-throwing navi... it won't be very challenging." Lan said with a slight smirk. "I bet me and Megaman'll take it down before the rest of you can blink"  
-------"I'll take that bet!" the young woman said with a grin, a fire burning in her eyes. "At the end of the fight, whoever deleted the most viruses wins - the Navi sending them counts for ten"  
-------"Yeah, if I win, you have to buy us all a pizza!" Lan said, the same competitive look in his eyes.  
-------"Oh, yeah! Tomako, lay it easy on Lan, I'm hungry!" Dex said.  
-------"Easy on me? H-Hey! Who's side are you on?" Lan said, glaring at Dex.  
-------"Fine, and if I win, you'll have to go and eat pizza with me, in a fancy italian resturaunt, just the two of us"  
-------"H-Huh?" Lan said, looking up at Tomako, his face a little red. "You mean like ..." His mind began to wander.  
-------"And you'll have to pay for it." -------"Ahh!" Lan said, snapping out of his near-daydream as he realized money was at stake. "You're on! Megaman, jack in!" Lan shouted as everyone jacked their Navis into the hectic server.  
-------"Those two will never grow up." Mr.Famous said with a chuckle.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-------Deep in the heart of the abandoned WWW Server, lost and hidden amidst an endless sea of platforms, a young Navi could be seen hiding under a staircase, curled up into a ball, crying softly to herself. "Why did I have to be designed so young"  
she sobbed quietly. "I'm just a kid in his eyes... I'm 'like a daughter to him'..." she said, bitterly remembering the words that, the first time she heard them, had felt rather special at the time. "Why can't that idiot treat me like an equal..? Why can't he feel the same way I do"  
-------She stared off into the endless void of the WWW as she cried, knowing it was ridiculous to be so emotional but not caring whatsoever. "Why can't he love me too..." A few seconds after the words left her lips, she felt a hand softly rest upon her shoulder.  
-  
-  
-------Mia closed her eyes and smiled at the rest of the memory, standing amidst an army of Mettaurs that were wrecking the DNN server, most of the background ripped open to reveal a black void with green numbers & symbols. She opened her eyes after a few moments, pulling down a few screens to watch a few broadcasts, browsing through countless different shows. "Honestly, how can humans watch this garbage?" she said as she flipped through late night TV. "Eww"  
-  
-  
-------She turned around and realized that, amidst the complicated tangle of platforms that was the DNN Server, all of her Mettaur viruses had vanished. "What the.." she said,  
before looking down the stairs from her current platform to see Megaman, Gateman,  
Gutsman, a commercial grade Navi with odd armor colors, Protoman, Metalman, and a very familiar Navi, green with a cybernetic right arm and a robotic horse for a lower body, a long javelin in his left hand... "You're under arrest!" Gateman shouted.  
-------Mia and the Centaur locked looks and both looked shocked to see eachother,  
before Mia growled. "You!" she screamed as a pink aura of power surrounded her, much like Forte's. "You're the Navi I saw that day! You're the Navi who ruined my life!" she hissed as she made five round silver Hardhead viruses appear, each one opening its large mouth to begin blowing away the stairs. -------"And you're the defective Navi my operator got rid of.." Centaurman said in the familiar deep voice. -------"I'M NOT DEFECTIVE!" Mia screamed as her aura exploded, decimating her hardhead viruses, her platform, and the stairs as she floated in the middle of the void, glaring at the heroic band of Navis, her fists glowing with rage-induced power, a new aura reforming around her as the navis began hurling projectiles at her. She stood with a laugh as all of their shots bounced off.  
-------"Who's defective now!" Mia shouted with an arrogant laugh, before her aura began sparking a bit as it flickered away. Her ears dropped as she realize her shield had vanished, and screamed as she hacked her way onto a higher platform, summoning three large black wall Dominerd viruses around herself.  
-------"Come on, let's go!" Megaman shouted as he and Gateman led the pack of heroes up the stairs towards the hacker Navi. -------"Megaman, make sure we get the last hit on her!" Lan called to his Navi. "We're behind by five points... and I don't want to lose my allowance!" whined Megaman's operator.  
-  
-  
-------Thousands of screens popped up around the wrecked server, each one with Mia's tongue sticking out at them. "Let's see you make it all the way up here"  
she said with a smirk as viruses began to pour down the long spiraling staircase leading to the platform she was at.  
-------"Metalman, crush'em all! Don't let Lan catch up!" Tomako shouted as a wave of spiny-furred wolf viruses began to run towards the heroes, spewing flames towards them. Gutsman smashed his fists into the ground, causing shockwaves to slam into the fireballs, bursting them early to create a smokescreen for Protoman to dash through with a shower of cover fire, slicing through the rest of the wolves in seconds. -  
-  
-  
-------"... Don't kill the Navi when we get to her. Take her alive." the orange haired scientist said.  
-------"What?" Lan shouted. "But.. I need those points to win the bet"  
-------"Don't delete her." -------"Just give the points to whoever captures her!" Dex said, trying to help Lan out so he can get a slice of the victory pizza.  
-------"Uncle, who cares what happens to a stray Navi?" the young brown-haired lady said, sounding slightly annoyed. "It'd be a lot easier to delete her now"  
-------"I want to capture her intact. Don't delete her." the scientist said,  
giving his niece a stern look. "We wouldn't be dealing with this now if not for the irresponsibility of certain operators"  
-  
-  
-  
-------The team of navis reached the top platform after deleting countless hundreds of viruses, Mia standing in the middle of it, her face still as cocky as ever. "Megaman, go get'er quick!" Lan shouted, as the blue bomber quickly charged his bsuter gun and fired a shot at the hacker Navi.  
-------Right as the buster shot was about to blast Mia in the face, a large black wall virus with wicked white eyes sprung up to block the shot before vanishing, another one appearing in front of Megaman and opening its mouth to chomp down on him.  
-------"Ahhh..!" Megaman started to shout, before a long spear shot into its mouth,  
shattering it into fragments. The commercial-grade Navi's arm turned into a cannon as he blasted at Mia again, a second Dominerd wall springing up to block it, before teleporting into the Navi's face to do the same trick, the cannon arm of the Navi transforming into a blade as he sliced the dark wall virus in half.  
-------"Go away!" Mia shouted, pulling out a pair of buster guns and beginning to rapidly spray at the heroes. Metalman rushed towards the hacker navi, her shots bouncing off of his hard armor as his fist began shining. Mia screamed, falling backwards as a third and final Dominerd sprung up to protect her, Metalman's fist shattering the Dominerd with ease and nearly crushing Mia's foot.  
-------"Careful!" the orange-haired scientist exclaimed as Tomako's navi nearly crushed Mia. -------"Leave me alone!" Mia screamed, her face appearing on every channel's screen that filled the server as she tried to crawl away from the heroes, her once cocky smirks replaced by a look of horror. "Go away"  
-------"Don't delete her." the commercial-grade Navi said, Metalman nodding in agreement and walking back to the group.  
-------"Megaman, that last dominerd makes my score eleven above yours.." Tomako said with a laugh. "Someone owes me dinner"  
-------"Aww, man..." Lan sighed. "There goes my allowance for a month"  
-  
-  
-------Suddenly, before anyone could stop him, Centaurman hurled a javelin at Mia. At that moment, everything seemed to slow down; the commercial Navi shouted out "No!", everyone else gasped with mild surprise, the brown-haired girl with pigtails smirked cruelly, and Mia screamed, closing her eyes as the spear hurdled towards her head, the server quaking as if the damage she'd done to it had finally taken its toll.  
-  
-------And as fast as the spear had been thrown, a blinding flash lit up the server as the sound of the spear shattering could be heard. As the light slowly faded, everyone stared in surprise at a cloaked Navi with a dark purple aura of power surrounding him, the shattered pieces of the spear fallling from the edge of his shield. --------Mia slowly opened her eyes to look at her old master, realizing she was surrounded by his aura, and squealed as she ran around to wrap her arms around his waist, hugging him close and nuzzling his chest. "Forte..." she said with a purr as the cloaked Navi wrapped his arms around her, glaring at the hero navis.  
--------"You won't get away this time, Forte!" the commercial Navi shouted. "There are far too many of us and only one of you"  
-  
------"Forte'll delete all of you for messing with me!" Mia shouted, sticking her tongue out at the other navis. Forte's body faded to grey as it cracked all over from his neck down, reverting to its bugfrag form as bugfrags began to slowly envelop Mia's body.  
------"Wh-What're you doing!" Mia shrieked as she felt bugfrags crawling around her body.  
------"I'm saving us both..." Forte said as his aura began shining so brightly no one could see what was happening inside. The entire server began to tremble, barely able to contain the power coming from the super Navi as he united with his apprentice, his shining aura growing bigger and bigger untill it exploded, sending all the heroes sprawling backwards down the long winding stairs to a large platform below, the entire platform Forte was on and the stairway leading to it shattering.  
------As the flames and smoke from the explosion faded away, everyone stared up in horror to see Forte hovering up above, his cloak ripped in many places; the wings on his helmet had extended and grew somewhat spikey, his armor trimmed in purple instead of yellow with long, purple and black cybernetic angel wings sprouting from his back as he glared down at the heroes with shining white eyes, a black aura surrounding him.  
"Pitiful Navi Slaves, your time has finally come!" Forte and Mia's voice yelled, the server flickering and glitching up everywhere as the last bit of it that had remain uncurrupted shattered, leaving the server in darkness except for a small group of broken platforms floating in the endless void. "This will be the beginning of the end for all of mankind"  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-----CONTEST:  
Forte will be gathering a band of loyal followers the next chapter, so you, THe Reviewer,  
must make a choice now. Here's how the contest will work. Follow these rules or you probably won't be able to win anything.  
Inside this chapter is a line from a Megaman game. Find it, and email me at with the subject "Megaman Fanfiction Contest." Inside the email,  
put your answer first - go ahead and guess, because if I like the rest of your email, I'll probably still count you in. After the answer, you must choose whether to join the heroes and fight alongside Lan and company to save both worlds, or choose to become one of Forte's loyal followers and help him to destroy humanity. In your email, say which side you want to join, then follow the next instructions carefully.  
-  
I need a name for your NetOp (you) if you're Good, if you're evil you're just a Navi.  
Either way, I also need a name for your NetNavi - try to come up with an original one,  
because I don't want to see a bunch of clones walking around, except for commercial navis perhaps. If you want a Commercial Grade Navi, just pick a bodystyle (Normal,  
or Undernet), pick your body colors and what battlechips you use, and your personality,  
along with some quotes you may say in battle. If you want a custom navi, give me a complete description of him/her, what special abilities your Navi can use, your personality, and some quotes you may say in battle. Of coarse, bear in mind if you choose evil, you're guarenteed to be deleted. If you're a good guy, you may be deleted anyway - to make it easier to decide which heroes will go down, put in your email if you don't mind being deleted in epic battle or not. And please, no god-modding. I hate that. In other words, no navis with "SuperUltraMegaHyperUber1337haxX0rzpwnage Cannon that blows everyone up" attacks,  
or being completely invincible - it just wouldn't be fair. If your Navi is expected to be completely untouchable, it won't make an appearance. I'm going to hold off on updating for a short while to give you all a chance to enter - if the chapter after this is already made, sorry, you missed your chance. If you enter in time, however,  
you'll make an apperance in a huge war that will take place next chapter.  
Good luck, have fun, and um. Review. Please. Pretty please? 


End file.
